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TRANCES  E.  BENNETT 


UNIVERSITY 


THE 
COLERIDGE 

COLLECTION 


fyiZ-fQ^/lff 


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312   0»   So   ©®&£SJI3a2mS$>   23^ 


THE 


STATESMAN'S  MANUAL; 


THE  BIBLE  THE  BEST  GUIDE  TO  POLITICAL 
SKILL  AND  FORESIGHT: 

» 

ADDRESSED    TO 

THE  HIGHER  CLASSES  OP  SOCIETY. 


By  S.  T.  COLERIDGE, Esq. 


BURLINGTON  : 

CHAUNCEY    GOODRICH. 

1832. 


University  Press. 
C.  Goodrich.. ..Printer. 


LAY   SERMON. 


PSALM  LXXVIII.  V.  5,  6,  7. 

5.  For  he  established  a  testimony  in  Jacob  and  appointed  a  law 
in  Israel ;  which  he  commanded  our  fathers,  that  they  should 
make  them  known  to  their  children.  6.  ..That  the  generation 
to  come  might  know  them,  even  the  children  which  should  be 
born;  who  should  ariss  and  declare  them  to  their  children: 
7.  That  they  might  set  their  hope  in  God,  and .  not  forget  the 
works  of  God. 

If  our  knowledge  and  information  concerning 
the  Bible  had  been  confined  to  the  one  fact  of 
its  immediate  derivation  from  God,  we  should 
still  presume  that  it  contained  rules  and  assis- 
tances for  all  conditions  of  men  under  all  cir- 
cumstances; and  therefore  for  communities  no 
less  than  for  individuals.  The  contents  of 
every  work  must  correspond  to  the  character 
and  designs  of  the  work-master ;  and  .the  in- 
ference in  the  present  case  is  too  obvious  to 
be  overlooked,  too  plain  to  be  resisted.  It 
requires,  indeed,  all  the  might  of  superstition 
to  conceal  from  a  man  of  common  understand- 
l* 


283825 


ing  the  further  truth,  that  the  interment  of  such 
a  treasure  in  a  dead  language  must  needs  be 
contrary  to  the  intentions  of  the  gracious  Donor. 
Apostacy  itself  dared  not  question  the  premise : 
and  that  the  practical  consequence  did  not  follow, 
is  conceivable  only  under  a  complete  system  of 
delusion,  which  from  the  Cradle  to  the  death- 
bed ceases  not  to  overawe  the  will  by  obscure 
fears,  while  it  pre-occupies  the  senses  by  vivid 
imagery  and  ritual  pantomime.  But  to  such 
a  scheme  all  forms  of  sophistry  are  native. 
The  very  excellence  of  the  Giver  has  been 
made  a  reason  for  withholding  the  gift;  nay 
the  transcendent  value  of  the  gift  itself  assigned 
as  the  motive  of  its  detention.  We  may  be 
shocked  at  the  presumption,  but  need  not  be 
surprized  at  the  fact,  that  a  jealous  priesthood 
should  have  ventured  to  represent  the  applica- 
bility of  the  Bible  to  all  the  wants  and  occasions 
of  men  as  a  wax-like  pliability  to  all  their  fan- 
cies and  prepossessions.  Faithful  guardians  of 
Holy  Writ !  they  are  constrained  to  make  it 
useless  in  order  to  guard  it  from  profanation ; 
and  those,  whom  they  have  most  defrauded, 
are  the  readiest  to  justify  the  fraud.  For  im- 
posture, organized  into  a  comprehensive  and 


self-consistent  whole,  forms  a  world  of  its  own, 
in  which  inversion  becomes  the  order  of  nature. 

Let  it  not  be  forgotten,  however,  (and  I  re* 
commend  the  fact  to  the  especial  attention  of 
those  among  ourselves,  who  are  disposed  to 
rest  contented  with  an  implicit  faith  and  passive 
acquiescence)  that  the  Church  of  Superstition 
never  ceased  to  avow  the  profoundest  reverence 
for  the  Scriptures  themselves,  and  what  it  for- 
bids its  vassals  to  ascertain,  it  not  only  permits, 
but  commands  them  to  take  for  granted. 

Whether,  and  to  what  extent,  this  suspen- 
sion of  the  rational  functions,  this  spiritual 
slumber,  will  be  imputed  as  a  sin  to  the  souls 
who  are  still  under  chains  of  papal  darkness, 
we  are  neither  enabjed  or  authorized  to  deter- 
mine. It  is  enough  for  us  to  know  that  the 
land,  in  which  we  abide,  has  like  another 
Goshen  been  severed  from  the  plague,  and  that 
we  have  light  in  our  dwellings.  The  road  of 
salvation  for  us  is  a  high  road,  and  the  wayfar- 
ers, though  'simple,  need  not  err  therein.' 
The  Gospel  lies  open  in  the  market-place,  and 
on  every  window  seat,  so  that  (virtually  at 
least)  the  deaf  may  hear  the  words  of  the  Book  J 
It  is  preached  at  every  turning,  so  that  the 

263825 


blind  may  see  them.  (Isai.  xxix.  18.)  The 
circumstances  then  being  so  different,  if  the  re- 
sult should  prove  similar,  we  may  be  quite  cer- 
tain that  we  shall  not  be  held  guiltless.  *The 
ignorance,  which  may  be  the  excuse  of  others, 
will  be  our  crime.  Our  birth  and  denizenship 
in  an  enlightened  and  protestant  land,  will, 
with  all  our  rights  and  franchises  to  boot,  be 
brought  in  judgment  against  us,  and  stand  first 
in  the  fearful  list  of  blessings  abused.  The 
glories  of  our  country  will  form  the  blazonry 
of  our  own  impeachment,  and  the  very  name 
of  Englishmen,  which  we  are  almost  all  of  us 
too  proud  of,  and  scarcely  any  of  us  enough 
thankful  for,  will  be  annexed  to  that  of  Chris- 
tians only  to  light  up  our  shame,  and  aggravate 
our  condemnation. 

I  repeat,  therefore,  that  the  habitual  unre- 
flectingness,  which  in  certain  countries  may  be 
susceptible  of  more  or  less  palliation  in  most 
instances,  can  in  this  country  be  deemed  blame- 
less in  none.  The  humblest  and  least  educated 
of  our  countrymen  must  have  wilfully  neglected 
the  inestimable  privileges,  secured  to  all  alike, 
if  he  has  not  himself  found,  if  he  has  not  from 
his  own  personal  experience  discovered,  the 


sufficiency  of  the  Scriptures  in  all  knowledge 
requisite  for  a  right  performance  of  his  duty 
as  a  man  and  a  christian.  Of  the  laboring 
classes,  who  in  all  countries  form  the  great 
majority  of  the  inhabitants,  more  than  this  is 
not  demanded,  more  than  this  is  not  perhaps 
generally  desirable — "They  are  not  sought 
for  in  public  counsel,  nor  need  they  be  found 

where  politic   sentences   are  spoken. It  is 

enough  if  every  one  is  wise  in  the  working  of 
his  own  craft:  so  best  will  they  maintain  the 
state  of  the  world." 

But  you,  my  friends,  to  whom  the  following 
pages  are  more  particularly  addressed,  as  to 
men  moving  in  the  higher  class  of  society: — 
You  will,  I  hope,  have  availed  yourselves  of 
the  ampler  means  entrusted  to  you  by  God's 
providence,  to  a  more  extensive  study  and  a 
wider  use  of  his  revealed  will  and  word.  From 
you  we  have  a  right  to  expect  a  sober  and 
meditative  accommodation  to  your  own  times 
and  country  of  those  important  truths  declared 
in  the  inspired  writings  '  for  a  thousand  genera- 
tions,' and  of  the  awful  examples,  belonging 
to  all  ages,  by  which  those  truths  are  at  once 
illustrated   and  confirmed.    Would  you  feel 


10 

conscious  that  you  had  shewn  yourselves  une- 
qual to  your  station  in  society — would  you 
stand  degraded  in  your  own  eyes;  if  you  be- 
trayed an  utter  want  of  information  respecting 
the  acts  of  human  sovereigns  and  legislators'? 
And  should  you  not  much  rather  be  both 
ashamed  and  afraid  to  know  yourselves  incon- 
versant with  the  acts  and  constitutions  of  God 
whose  law  executeth  itself,  and  whose  Word 
is  the  foundation,  the  power,  and  the  life  of  the 
universe?  Do  you  hold  it  a  requisite  of  your 
rank  to  shew  yourselves  inquisitive  concerning 
the  expectations  and  plans  of  statesmen  and 
state-counsellors?  Do  you  excuse  it  as  natu- 
ral curiosity,  that  you  lend  a  listening  ear  to 
the  guesses  of  state-gazers,  to  the  dark  hints 
and  open  revilings  of  our  self-ihspired  state  for- 
tune-tellers, '  the  wizards,  that  peep  and  mutter* 
and  forcast,  alarmists  by  trade,  and  malecon- 
tents  for  their  bread?  And  should  you  not 
feel  a  deeper  interest  in  predictions  which  are 
permanent  prophecies,  because  they  are  at  the 
same  time  eternal  truths?  Predictions  which 
in  containing  the  grounds  of  fulfilment  involve 
the  principles  of  foresight,  and  teach  the  sci- 
ence of  the  future  in  its  perpetual  elements  ? 


11 

But  I  will  struggle  to  believe  that  of  those 
whom  I  now  suppose  myself  addressing,  there 
are  few  who  have  not  so  employed  their  great- 
er leisure  and  superior  advantages  as  to  render 
these  remarks,  if  not  wholly  superfluous,  yet 
personally  inapplicable.  In  commmon  with 
your  worldly  inferiors,  you  will  indeed  have  di- 
rected your  main  attention  to  the  promises  and 
the  information  conveyed  in  the  records  of  the 
evangelists  and  apostles :  promises,  that  need 
only  a  lively  trust  in  them,  on  our  own  part,  to 
be  the  means  as  well  as  the  pledges  of  our 
eternal  welfare !  information  that  opens  out  to 
our  knowledge  a  kingdom  that  is  not  of  this 
world,  thrones  that  cannot  be  shaken,  and  scep- 
tres that  can  neither  be  broken  or  transferred! 
Yet  not  the  less  on  this  account  will  you  have 
looked  back  with  a  proportionate  interest  on 
the  temporal  destinies  of  men  and  nations,  stor- 
ed up  for  our  instruction  in  the  archives  of  the 
Old  Testament :  not  the  less  will  you  delight 
to  retrace  the  paths  by  which  Providence  has 
led  the  kingdoms  of  this  world  through  the 
valley  of  mortal  life — Paths,  engraved  with  the 
foot-marks  of  captains  sent  forth  from  the  God 
of  Armies!  Nations  in  whose  guidance  or  chas- 


12 

tisement  the  arm  of  Omnipotence  itself  was 
made  bare. 

Recent  occurrences  have  given  additional 
strength  and  fresh  force  to  our  sage  poet's  eu- 
logy on  the  Jewish  prophets : 

As  men  divinely  taught  and  better  teaching 

The  solid  rules  of  civil  government 

In  their  majestic  unaffected  style, 

Than  all  the  oratory  of  Greece  and  R6me.# 

In  them  is  plainest  taught  and  easiest  leamt 

What  makes  a  nation  happy  and  keeps  it  so, 

What  ruins  kingdoms  and  lays  cities  flat. 

Paradise  Regained,  iv.  354 

If  there  be  any  antidote  to  that  restless 
craving  for  the  wonders  of  the  day,  which  in 
conjunction  with  the  appetite  for  publipity  is 
spreading  like  an  efflorescence  on  the  surface 
of  our  national  character;  if  there  exist  means 
for  deriving  resignation  from  general  discontent, 
means  of  building  up  with  the  very  materials 
of  political  gloom  that  stedfast  frame  of  hope 
which  affords  the  only  certain  shelter  from  the 
throng  of  self-realizing  alarms,  at  the  same  time 
that  it  is  the  natural  home  and  workshop  of  all 
the  active  virtues ;  that  antidote  and  these 
means  must  be  sought  for  in  the  collation  of 
the  present  with  the  past,  in  the  habit  of  thought- 


13 

fully  assimilating  the  events  of  our  own  age  to 
those  of  the  time  before  us.  If  this  be  a  moral 
advantage  derivable  from  history  in  general, 
rendering  its  study  therefore  a  moral  duty  for 
such  as  possess  the  opportunities  of  books, 
leisure  and  education,  it  would  be  inconsistent 
even  with  the  name  of  believers  not  to  recur 
with  pre-eminent  interest  to  events  and  revo- 
lutions, the  records  of  which  are  as  much 
distinguished  from  all  other  history  by  their 
especial  claims  to  divine  authority,  as  the  facts 
themselves  were  from  all  other  facts  by  especial 
manifestation  of  divine  interference.  *  Whatso- 
ever things,'  saith  Saint  Paul  (Romans  xv.  4.) 
'  were  written  aforetime,  were  written  for  our 
learning;  that  we  through  patience  and  comfort 
of  the  Scriptures  might  have  hope.' 

In  the  infancy  of  the  world,  signs  and  won- 
ders were  requisite  in  order  to  startle  and  break 
down  that  superstition,  idolatrous  in  itself  and 
the  source  of  all  other  idolatry,  which  tempts 
the  natural  man  to  seek  the  true  cause  and  ori- 
gin of  public  calamities  in  outward  circumstan- 
ces, persons  and  incidents:  in  agents  therefore 
that  were  themselves  but  surges  of  the  same 
tide,  passive  conductors  of  the  one  invisible  in- 


14 

fluence,  under  which  the  total  host  of  billows, 
in  the  whole  line  of  successive  impulse,  swell 
and  roll  shoreward;  there  finally,  each  in  its 
turn,  to  strike,  roar  and  be  dissipated. 

But  with  each  miracle  worked  there  was  a 
truth  revealed,  which  thence  forward  was  to  act 
as  its  substitute:  And  if  we  think  the  Bible  less 
applicable  to  us  on  account  of  the  miracles,  we 
degrade  ourselves  into  mere  slaves  of  sense  and 
fancy,  which  are  indeed  the  appointed  medium 
between  earth  and  heaven,  but  for  that  very 
cause  stand  in  a  desirable  relation  to  spiritual 
truth  then  only,  when,  as  a  mere  and  passive 
medium,  they  yield  a  free  passage  to  its  light. 
It  was  only  to  overthrow  the  usurpation  exercis- 
ed in  and  through  the  senses,  that  the  senses 
were  miraculously  appealed  to.  Reason  and 
Religion  are  their  own  evidence.  The  natural 
Sun  is  in  this  respect  a  symbol  of  the  spirit- 
ual. Ere  he  is  fully  arisen,  and  while  his  glories 
are  still  under  veil,  he  calls  up  the  breeze  to 
chase  away  the  usurping  vapours  of  the  night- 
season,  and  thus  converts  the  air  itself  into  the 
minister  of  its  own  purification:  not  surely  in 
proof  or  elucidation  of  the  light  from  heaven, 
but  to  prevent  its  interception. 


15 

Wherever,  therefore,  similar  circumstances 
co-exist  with  the  same  moral  causes,  the  prin- 
ciples revealed,  and  the  examples  recorded,  in 
the  inspired  writings  render  miracles  superflu- 
ous :  and  if  we  neglect  to  apply  truths  in  expect- 
ation of  wonders,  or  under  pretext  of  the 
cessation  of  the  latter,  we  tempt  God  and  merit 
the  same  reply  which  our  Lord  gave  to  the 
Pharisees  on  a  like  occasion.  *  A  wicked  and 
an  adulterous  generation  seeketh  after  a  sign, 
and  there  shall  no  sign  be  given  to  it,  but  the 
sign  of  the  prophet  Jonas :'  that  is,  a  threatening 
call  to  repentance.  Equally  applicable  and 
prophetic  will  the  following  verses  be.  'The 
men  of  Nineveh  shall  rise  in  judgment  with 
this  generation  and  shall  condemn  it,  because 
they  repented  at  the  preaching  of  Jonas,  and 
behold,  a  greater  than  Jonas  is  here. — The 
queen  of  the  South  shall  rise  up  in  the  judg- 
ment with  this  generation,  and  shall  condemn 
it:  for  she  came  from  the  uttermost  parts  of 
the  earth  to  hear  the  wisdom  of  Solomon,  and 
behold  a  greater  than  Solomon  is  here.'  For 
have  we  not  divine  assurance  that  Christ  is 
with  his  church,  even  to  the  end  of  the  world  ? 
And  what  could  the  queen  of  the  South,  or  the 


16 

men  of  Nineveh  have  beheld,  that  could  enter 
into  competition  with  the  events  of  our  own 
times,  in  importance,  in  splendor,  or  even  in 
strangeness  and  significancy? 

The  true  origin  of  human  events  is  so  little 
susceptible  of  that  kind  of  evidence  which  can 
compel  our  belief;  so  many  are  the  disturbing 
forces  which  in  every  cycle  or  ellipse  of  chan- 
ges modify  the  motion  given  by  the  first 
projection;  and  every  age  has,  or  imagines  it 
has,  its  own  circumstances  which  render  past 
experience  no  longer  applicable  to  the  present 
case ;  that  there  will  never  be  wanting  answers, 
and  explanations,  and  specious  flatteries  of 
hope  to  persuade  a  people  and  its  government, 
that  the  history  of  the  past  ( is  inapplicable  to 
their  case.  And  no  wonder,  if  we  read  history 
for  the  facts  instead,  of  reading  it  for  the  sake 
of  the  general  principles,  which  are  to  the  facts 
as  the  root  and  sap  of  a  tree  to  its  leaves :  and 
no  wonder,  if  history  so  read  should  find  a 
dangerous  rival  in  novels,  nay,  if  the  latter 
should  be  preferred  to  the  former  on  the  score 
even  of  probability.  I  well  remember,  that 
when  the  examples  of  former  Jacobins,  as 
Julius  Caesar,  Cromwell,  and  the  like,  were 


17 

adduced  in  France  and  England  at  the  com- 
mencement of  the  French  Consulate,  it  was 
ridiculed  as  pedantry  and  pedant's  ignorance 
to  fear  a  repetition  of  usurpation  and  military 
despotism  at  the  close  of  the  enlightened 
eighteenth  century  !  Even  so,  in  the  very 
dawn  of  the  late  tempestuous  day,  when  the 
revolutions  of  Corcyra,  the  prescriptions  of  the 
Reformers,  Marius,  Caesar,  &c,  and  the  direful 
effects  of  the  levelling  tenets  in  the  Peasant's 
War  in  Germany,  (differenced  from  the  tenets 
of  the  first  French  constitution  only  by  the 
mode  of  wording  them,  the  figures  of  speech 
being  borrowed  in  the  one  instance  from  the- 
ology, and  in  the  other  from  modern  metaphys- 
ics) were  urged  on  the  Convention,  and  its 
vindicators ;  the  magi  of  the  day,  the  true 
citizens  of  the  world,  the  Plusquam-perfecti  of 
patriotism,  gave  us  set  proofs  that  similar  results 
were  impossible,  and  that  it  was  an  insult  to  so 
philosophical  an  age,  to  so  enlightened  a  nation, 
to  dare  direct  the  public  eye  towards  them  as 
to  lights  of  warning.  Alas!  like  lights  in  the 
stern  of  a  vessel  they  illuminated  the  path  only 
that  had  beenpassed  over! 

2* 


18 

The  politic  Florentine*  has  observed,  that 
there  are  brains  of  three  races.  The  one  un- 
derstands of  itself;  the  other  understands  as 
much  as  is  shown  it  by  others ;  the  third  neither 
understands  of  itself,  nor  what  is  shewn  it  by 
others.  In  our  times  there  are  more  perhaps 
who  belong  to  the  third  class  from  vanity  and 
acquired  frivolity  of  mind,  than  from  natural 
incapacity.  It  is  no  uncommon  foible  with 
those  who.  are  honoured  with  the  acquaintance 
of  the  great,  to  attribute  national  events  to  par- 
ticular persons,  particular  measures,  to  the  er- 
rors of  one  man,  to  the  intrigues  of  another, 
to  any  possible  spark  of  a  particular  occasion, 
rather  than  to  the  true  proximate  cause,  (and 
which  alone  deserves  the  name  of  a  cause)  the 
predominant  state  of  public  opinion.  And  still 
less  are  they  inclined  to  refer  the  latter  to  the 
ascendancy  of  speculative  principles,  and  the 
scheme  or  mode  of  thinking  in  vogue.  I  have 
known  men,  who  with  significant  nods  and  the 
pitying  contempt  of  smiles,  have  denied  all  in- 
fluence to  the  corruptions  of  moral  and  political 

*  Sono  di  tre  generazioni  cervelli:  l'uno  intende  per  ee  ;  l'al- 
tro  intende  quanto  da  altri  gli  e  mostro ;  il  terzo  non  intends 
ne  per  se  stesso  ne  per  demostrazione  d'altri.— Machiavbmj. 


10 

philosophy,  and  with  much  solemnity  have 
proceeded  to  solve  the  riddle  of  the  French 
Revolution  by  Anecdotes  !  Yet  it  would  not 
be  difficult,  by  an  unbroken  chain  of  historic 
facts,  to  demonstrate  that  the  most  important 
changes  in  the  commercial  relations  of  the 
world  had  their  origin  in  the  closets  or  lonely 
walks  of  uninterested  theorists ; — that  the  migh- 
ty epochs  of  commerce,  that  have  changed 
the  face  of  empires  ;  nay,  the  most  important 
of  those  discoveries  and  improvements  in  the 
mechanic  arts,  which  have  numerically  increas- 
ed our  population  beyond  what  the  wisest 
statesmen  of  Elizabeth's  reign  deemed  possi- 
ble, and  again  doubled  this  population  virtually; 
the  most  important,  I  say,  of  those  inventions 
that  in  their  results 

best  uphold 

War  by  her  two  main  nerves,  iron  and  gold ; 

had  their  origin  not  in  the  cabinets  of  states- 
men, or  in  the  practical  insight  of  men  of 
business,  but  in  the  closets .  of  uninterested 
theorists,  in  the  visions  of  recluse  genius.  To 
the  immense  majority  of  men,  even  in  civilized 
countries,  speculative  philosophy  has  ever  been 


20 

and  must  ever  remain,  a  terra  incognita.  Yet 
it  is  not  the  less  true,  that  all  the  epoch-forming 
Revolutions  of  the  Christian  world,  the  revolu- 
tions of  religion  and  with  them  the  civil,  social, 
and  domestic  habits  of  the  nations  concerned, 
have  coincided  with  the  rise  and  fall  of  meta- 
physical systems.  So  few  are  the  minds  that 
really  govern  the  machine  of  society,  and  so 
incomparably  more  numerous  and  more  impor- 
tant are  the  indirect  consequences  of  things 
than  their  foreseen  and  direct  effects. 

It  is  with  nations  as  with  individuals.  In 
tranquil  moods  and  peaceable  times  we  are 
quite  practical.  Facts  only  and  cool  common 
sense  are  then  in  fashion.  But  let  the  winds 
of  passion  swell,  and  straightway  men  begin  to 
generalize;  to  connect  by  remotest  analogies ; 
to  express  the  most  universal  positions  of  rea- 
son in  the  most  glowing  figures  of  fancy ;  in 
short,  to  feel  particular  truths  and  mere  facts, 
as  poor,  cold,  narrow,  and  incommensurate  with 
their  feelings. 

The  Apostle  of  the  Gentiles  quoted  from  a 
Greek  comic  poet.  Let  it  not  then  be  con- 
demned as  unseasonable  or  out  of  place,  if  I 
remind  you  that  in  the  intuitive  knowledge  of 


21 

this  truth,  and  with  his  wonted  fidelity  to  na- 
ture, our  own  great  poet  has  placed  the  greater 
number  of  his  profoundest  maxims  and  general 
truths,  both  political  and  moral,  not  in  the 
mouths  of  men  at  ease,  but  of  men  under  the 
influence  of  passion,  when  the  mighty  thoughts 
overmaster  and  become  the  tyrants  of  the  mind 
that  has  brought  them  forth.  In  his  Lear, 
Othello,  Macbeth,  Hamlet,  principles  of  deepest 
insight  and  widest  interest  fly  off  like  sparks 
from  the  glowing  iron  under  the  loud  anvil.  It 
seems  a  paradox  only  to  the  unthinking,  and 
it  is  a  fact  that  none,  but  the  unread  in  history, 
will  deny,  that  in  periods  of  popular  tumult 
and  innovation  the  more  abstract  a  notion  is, 
the  more  readily  has  it  been  found  to  combine, 
the  closer  has  appeared  its  affinity,  with  the 
feelings  of  a  people  and  with  all  their  immediate 
impulses  to  action.  At  the  commencement  of 
the  French  revolution,  in  the  remotest  villages 
every  tongue  was  employed  in  echoing  and 
enforcing  the  almost  geometrical  abstractions 
of  the  physiocratic  politicians  and  economists. 
The  public  roads  were  crowded  with  armed 
enthusiasts  disputing  on  the  inalienable  sove- 
reignty of  the  people,  the  imprescriptible  laws 


22 

of  the  pure  reason,  and  the  universal  constitu- 
tion, which,  as  rising  out  of  the  nature  and 
rights  of  man  as  man,  all  nations  alike  were 
under  the  obligation  of  adopting*  Turn  over 
the  fugitive  writings,  that  are  still  extant,  of  the 
age  of  Luther ;  peruse  the  pamphlets  and  loose 
sheets  that  came  out  in  flights  during  the  reign 
of  Charles  the  First  and  the  Republic  >  and  you 
will  find  in  these  one  continued  comment  on 
the  aphorism  of  Lord  Chancellor  Bacon  (a  man 
assuredly  sufficiently  acquainted  with  the  ex- 
tent of  secret  and  personal  influence)  that  the 
knowledge  of  the  speculative  principles  of  men 
in  general  between  the  age  of  twenty  and 
thirty,  is  the  one  great  source  of  political  pro- 
phecy. And  Sir  Philip  Sidney  regarded  the 
adoption  of  one  set  of  principles  in  the  Nether- 
lands, as  a  proof  of  the  divine  agency  and  the 
fountain  of  all  the  events  and  successes  of  that 
revolution. 

A  calm  and  detailed  examination  of  the  facts 
justifies  me  to  my  own  mind  in  hazarding  the 
bold  assertion,  that  the  fearful  blunders  of  the 
late  dread  revolution,  and  all  the  calamitous 
mistakes  of  its  opponents  from  its  commence- 
ment even  to  the  sera  of  loftier  principles  and 


23 

wiser  measures  (an  sera,  that  began  with,  and 
ought  to  be  named  from,  the  war  of  the  Span- 
ish and  Portuguese  insurgents)  every  failure 
with  all  its  gloomy  results  may  be  unanswera- 
bly deduced  from  the  neglect  of  some  maxim 
or  other  that  had  been  established  by  clear 
reasoning  and  plain  facts  in  the  writings  of 
Thucydides,  Tacitus,  Machiavel,  Bacon,  or 
Harrington.  These  are  red-letter  names  even 
in  the  almanacks  of  worldly  wisdom;  and  yet 
I  dare  challenge  all  the  critical  benches  of 
infidelity  to  point  out  any  one  important  truth, 
any  one  efficient,  practical  direction  or  warning, 
which  did  not  pre-exist,  and  for  the  most  part 
in  a  sounder,  more  intelligible,  and  more  com- 
prehensive form  in  the  Bible. 

In  addition  to  this,  the  Hebrew  legislator, 
and  the  other  inspired  poets,  prophets,  histo- 
rians and  moralists  of  the  Jewish  church  have 
two  immense  advantages  in  their  favour.  First, 
their  particular  rules  and  prescripts  flow  di- 
rectly and  visibly  from  universal  principles,  as 
from  a  fountain :  they  flow  from  principles  and 
ideas  that  are  not  so  properly  said  to  be  con- 
firmed by  reason  as  to  be  reason  itself!  Prin- 
ciples, in  act  and  procession,  disjoined  from 


24 

which,  and  from  the  emotions  that  inevitably 
accompany  the  actual  intuition  of  their  truth, 
the  widest  maxims  of  prudence  are  like  arms 
without  hearts,  muscles  without  nerves.  Sec- 
ondly, from  the  very  nature  of  these  principles, 
as  taught  in  the  Bible,  they  are  understood  in 
exact  proportion  as  they  are  believed  and  felt. 
The  regulator  is  never  separated  from  the  main 
spring.  For  the  words  of  the  apostle  are  liter- 
ally and  philosophically  true :  We  (that  is,  the 
human  race)  live  by  faith.  Whatever  we 
do  or  know,  that  in  kind  is  different  from  the 
brute  creation,  has  its  origin  in  a  determination 
of  the  reason  to  have  faith  and  trust  in  itself. 
This,  its  first  act  of  faith  is  scarcely  less  than 
identical  with  its  own -being.  Implicite,  it  is 
the  Copula— it  contains  the  possibility — of 
every  position,  to  which  there  exists  any  cor- 
respondence in  reality.  It  is  itself,  therefore, 
the  realizing  principle,  the  spiritual  substratum 
of  the  whole  complex  body  of  truths.  This 
primal  act  of  faith  is  enunciated  in  the  word, 
God  :  a  faith  not  derived  from  experience,  but 
its  ground  and  source,  and  without  which  the 
fleeing  chaos  of  facts  would  no  more  form 
experience,  than  the  dust  of  the  grave  can  of 


25 

itself  make  a  living  man.  The  imperative  and 
oracular  form  of  the  inspired  Scripture  is  the 
form  of  reason  itself  in  all  things  purely  rational 
and  moral. 

If  it  be  the  word  of  Divine  Wisdom,  we 
might  anticipate  that  it  would  in  all  things  be 
distinguished  from  other  books,  as  the  Supreme 
Reason,  whose  knowledge  is  creative,  and  an- 
tecedent to  the  things  known,  is  distinguished 
from  the  understanding,  or  creaturely  mind  of 
the  individual,  the  acts  of  which  are  posterior 
to  the  things,  it  records  and  arranges.  Man 
alone  was  created  in  the  image  of  God:  a  po- 
sition groundless  and  inexplicable,  if  the  reason 
in  man  do  not  differ  from  the  understanding. 
For  this  the  inferior  animals,  (many  at  least) 
possess  in  degree:  and  assuredly  the  divine  im- 
age or  idea  is  not  a  thing  of  degrees. 

Hence  it  follows  that  what  is  expressed  in 
the  inspired  writings,  is  implied  in  all  absolute 
science.  The  latter  whispers  what  the  former 
utter  as  with  the  voice  of  a  trumpet.  As  sure 
as  God  liveth,  is  the  pledge  and  assurance 
of  every  positive  truth,  that  is  asserted  by  the 
reason.  The  human  understanding  musing  on 
many  things,  snatches  at  truth,  but  is  frustrated 


26 

and  disheartened  by  the  fluctuating  nature  of 
its  objects  ;  *  its  conclusions  therefore  are  timid 
and  uncertain,  and  it  hath  no  way  of  giving 
permanence  to  things  but  by  reducing  them  to 
abstractions :  hardly  (saith  the  author  of  the 
Wisdom  of  Solomon,  of  whose  words  the  pre- 
ceding sentence  is  a  paraphrase)  hardly  do  we 
guess  aright  at  things  that  are  upon  earth,  and 
with  labour  do  we  find  the  things  that  are  be- 
fore us;  but  all  certain  knowledge  is  in  the 
power  of  God,  and  a  presence  from  above.  So 
only  have  the  ways  of  men  been  reformed,  and 
every  doctrine  that  contains  a  saving  truth,  and 
all  acts  pleasing  to  God  (in  other  words,  all 
actions  consonant  with  human  nature,  in  its 
original  intention)  are  through  wisdom:  that 
is,  the  rational  spirit  of  man. 

This  then  is  the  prerogative  of  the  Bible ; 
this  is  the  privilege  of  its  believing  students. 

*  Iloxafia  ynQ  ov'x  eqt  dig  ififirfvcu  xa  ctvxa  xad3  'Hqax- 
Xenov,  ov'te  &vrjxrfg  ov^aiag  dig  d'lfjao&ai  xax(t  i'^tf 
'aXXo?  o^v'xrjxt  xal  ra'^ft  xrfg  fiExaftoXjfg  axidvrjai  xal 
na'Xtv  ovva'yet,  fiu'XXov  Se  ov'de  rca'Xiv  ov'ds  "vgsgov 
*<xXX'  "afta  ovvigaxai  xal  'cmoXemei,  xal  ngo'crsMn  xal 
"aneiar  "o&ev  ci^vd'  eig  xo'  efvat  nsoaivEt  xoy  yiyvo'fisvor 

avxrfg  xti  [irjdenoxE  X'rjysiv  firjd'  rfxxaaSai  xrfv  ysvsaiv. 
Plutarch,  Edit.  HvU.  cap.  xvm.  Vol.  p.  ix.  239. 


27 

With  them  the  principle  of  knowledge  is  like- 
wise a  spring  and  principle  of  action.  And 
as  it  is  the  only  certain  knowledge,  so  are  the 
actions  that  flow  with  it  the  only  ones  on 
which  a  secure  reliance  can  be  placed.  The 
understanding  may  suggest  motives,  may  avail 
itself  of  motives,  and  make  judicious  conjec- 
tures respecting  the  probable  consequences  of 
actions.  But  the  knowledge  taught  in  the 
Scriptures  produces  the  motives,  involves  the 
consequences ;  and  its  highest  formula  is  still : 
As  sure  as  God  liveth,  so  will  it  be  unto 
thee !  Strange  as  this  position  will  appear  to 
such  as  forget  that  motives  can  be  causes  only 
in  a  secondary  and  improper  sense,  inasmuch 
as  the  man  makes  the  motive,  not  the  motives 
the  man ;  and  that  the  same  thought  shall  be 
a  motive  to  one  man  and  no  motive  to  his 
neighbour ;  (a  sufficient  proof  that  the  motives 
themselves  are  effects,  the  principle  of  which, 
good  or  evil,  lies  far  deeper) — matter  for  scorn 
and  insult  though  this  position  will  furnish  to 
those,  who  think  (or  try  to  think)  every  man 
out  of  his  senses  who  has  not  lost  his  reason 
(or  alienated  it  by  wilful  sophistry,  demanding 
reasons  for  reason  itself)  yet  all  history  bears 


28 

evidence  to  its  truth.  The  sense  of  expedien- 
cy, the  cautious  balancing  of  comparative  ad- 
vantages, the  constant  wakefulness  to  the  Cui 
bono  ? — in  connection  with  the  Quid  mihi  ? — 
all  these  are  in  their  places  in  the  routine  of 
conduct,  by  which  the  individual  provides  for 
himself  the  real  or  supposed  wants  of  to-day 
and  to-morrow :  and  in  quiet  times  and  pros- 
perous circumstances  a  nation  presents  an 
aggregate  of  such  individuals,  a  busy  ant-hill  in 
calm  and  sunshine.  By  the  happy  organization 
of  a  well-governed  society  the  contradictory 
interests  of  ten  millions  of  such  individuals  may 
neutralize  each  other,  and  be  reconciled  in  the 
unity  of  the  rational  interest.  But  whence  did 
this  happy  organization  first  come? — Was  it 
a  tree  transplanted  from  Paradise,  with  all  its 
branches  in  full  fruitage? — Or  was  it  sowed 
in  sunshine  ?-— Was  it  in  vernal  breezes  and 
gentle  rains  that  it  fixed  its  roots,  and  grew 
and  strengthened  ? — Let  History  answer  these 
questions  ! — With  blood  was  it  planted — it 
was  rocked  in  tempests — the  goat,  the  ass, 
and  the  stag  gnawed  it — the  wild  boar  has 
whetted  his  tusk  on  its  bark.  The  deep  scars 
are  still  extant  on  its  trunk,  and  the  path  of 


29 

the  lightning  may  be  traced  among  its  higher 
branches.  And  even  after  its  full  growth,  in 
the  season  of  its  strength,  'when  its  height 
reached  to  the  heaven,  and  the  sight  thereof 
to  all  the  earth,'  the  whirlwind  has  more  than 
once  forced  its  stately  top  to  touch  the  ground : 
it  has  been  bent  like  a  bow,  and  sprang  back 
like  a  shaft.  Mightier  powers  were  at  work 
than  Expediency  ever  yet  called  up ! — yea, 
mightier  than  the  mere  Understanding  can 
comprehend !  One  confirmation  of  the  latter 
assertion  you  may  find  in  the  history  of  our 
country,  written  by  the  same  Scotch  philoso- 
pher, who  devoted  his  life  to  the  undermining 
of  the  Christian  religion ;  and  expended  his 
last  breath  in  a  blasphemous  regret  that  he 
had  not  survived  it! — by  the  same  heartless 
sophist  who,  in  this  island,  was  the  main  pi- 
oneer of  that  atheistic  philosophy,  which  in 
France  transvenomed  the  natural  thirst  of  truth 
into  the  hydrophobia  of  a  wild  and  homeless 
scepticism;  the  Elias  of  that  Spirit  of  Anti- 
christ, which 

still  promising 

Freedom,  itself  too  sensual  to  be  free, 

Poisons  life's  amities  and  cheats  the  soul 

Of  faith,  and  quiet  hope  and  all  that  lifts 

And  ail  that  soothes  the  spirit! 
*3 


30 

This  inadequacy  of  the  mere  understanding 
to  the  apprehension  of  moral  greatness  we  may 
trace  in  this  historian's  cool  systematic  attempt 
to  steal  away  every  feeling  of  reverence  for 
every  great  name  by  a  scheme  of  motives,  in 
which  as  often  as  possible  the  efforts  and  en- 
terprizes  of  heroic  spirits  are  attributed  to  this 
or  that  paltry  view  of  the  most  despicable  self- 
ishness. But  in  the  majority  of  instances  this 
would  have  been  too  palpably  false  and  slan- 
derous ;  and  therefore  the  founders  and  martyrs 
of  our  church  and  constitution,  of  our  civil  and 
religious  liberty,  are  represented  as  fanatics 
and  bewildered  enthusiasts.  But  histories  in- 
comparably more  authentic  than  Mr.  Hume's, 
(nay,  spite  of  himself  even  his  own  history) 
confirm  by  irrefragable  evidence  the  aphorism 
of  ancient  wisdom,  that  nothing  great  was  ever 
achieved  without  enthusiasm.  For  what  is 
enthusiasm  but  the  oblivion  and  swallowing-up 
of  self  in  an  object  dearer  than  self,  or  in  an 
idea  more  vivid? — How  this  is  produced  in 
the  enthusiasm  of  wickedness,  I  have  explain- 
ed in  the  third  Comment  annexed  to  this  Dis- 
course. But  in  the  genuine  enthusiasm  of 
morals,  religion,  and  patriotism,  this  enlarge- 


31 

ment  and  elevation  of  the  soul  above  its  mere 
self  attest  the  presence,  and  accompany  the 
intuition  of  ultimate  principles  alone.  These 
alone  can  interest  the  undegraded  human  spirit 
deeply  and  enduringly,  because  these  alone 
belong  to  its  essence,  and  will  remain  with  it 
permanently. 

Notions,  the  depthless  abstractions  of  fleet- 
ing phenomena,  the  shadows  of  sailing  vapors, 
the  colorless  repetitions  of  rain-bows,  have 
effected  their  utmost  when  they  have  added 
to  the  distinctness  of  our  knowledge.  For 
this  very  cause  they  are  of  themselves  adverse 
to  lofty  emotion,  and  it  requires  the  influence 
of  a  light  and  warmth,  not  their  own,  to  make 
them  chrystallize  into  a  semblance  of  growth. 
But  every  principle  is  actualized  by  an  idea ; 
and  every  idea  is  living,  productive,  partaketh 
of  infinity,  and  (as  Bacon  has  sublimely  observ- 
ed) containeth  an  endless  power  of  semination. 
Hence  it  is,  that  science,  which  consists  wholly 
in  ideas  and  principles,  is  power.  Scientia  et 
potentia  (saith  the  same  philosopher)  in  idem 
coincident.  Hence  too  it  is,  that  notions,  link- 
ed arguments,  reference  to  particular  facts  and 


32 

calculations  of  prudence,   influence  only  the 
comparatively  few,  the  men  of  leisurely  minds 
who  have  been  trained  up  to  them :  and  even 
these  few  they  influence  but  faintly.     But  for 
the  reverse,  I  appeal  to  the  general  character 
of  the  doctrines  which  have  collected  the  most 
numerous  sects,  and  acted  upon  the  moral  being 
of  the  converts  with  a  force  that  might  well 
seem  supernatural !     The  great  principles  of 
our  religion,   the   sublime   ideas  spoken  out 
everywhere  in  the  Old  and  New  Testament, 
resemble  the  fixed  stars,  which  appear  of  the 
same  size  to  the  naked  as  to  the  armed  eye ; 
the   magnitude  of  which  the  telescope  may 
rather  seem  to  diminish  than  to  increase.     At 
the  annunciation   of  principles,   of  ideas,  the 
soul  of  man  awakes,  and  starts  up,  as  an  exile 
in  a  far  distant  land  at  the  unexpected  sounds 
of  his  native  language,  when  after  long  years 
of  absence,  and  almost  of  oblivion,  he  is  sud- 
denly  addressed  in  his  own  mother-tongue. 
He  weeps  for  joy,  and  embraces  the  speaker 
as  his  brother.     How  else  can  we  explain  the 
fact  so  honourable  to  Great  Britain,  that  the 


33 

poorest*  amongst  us  will  contend  with  as  much 
enthusiasm  as  the  richest  for  the  rights  of  pro- 
perty? These  rights  are  the  spheres  and 
necessary  conditions  of  free  agency.  But  free 
agency  contains  the  idea  of  the  free  will ;  and 
in  this  he  intuitively  knows  the  sublimity,  and 
the  infinite  hopes,  fears,  and  capabilities  of  his 
own  nature.  On  what  other  ground  but  the 
cognateness  of  ideas  and  principles  to  man  as 
man,  does  the  nameless  soldier  rush  to  the 
combat  in  defence  of  the  liberties  or  the  honour 
of  his  country  % — Even  men  wofully  neglectful 
of  the  precepts  of  religion  will  shed  their  blood 
for  its  truth. 

Alas ! — the  main  hindrance  to  the  use  of  the 
Scriptures,  as  your  Manual,  lies  in  the  notion 
that  you  are  already  acquainted  with  its  con- 
tents. Something  new  must  be  presented  to 
you,  wholly  new  and  wholly  out  of  yourselves ; 
for  whatever  is  within  us  must  be  as  old  as 
the  first  dawn  of  human  reason.     Truths  of  all 

*  The  reader  will  remember  the  anecdote  told  with  so  much 
humour  in  Goldsmith's  Essay.  But  this  is  not  the  first  in- 
stance where  the  mind  in  its  hour  of  meditation  finds  matter 
of  admiration  and  elevating  thought,  in  circumstances  that  in 
a  different  mood  had  excited  its  mirth. 


34 

others  the  most  awful  and  mysterious  and  at 
the  same  time  of  universal  interest,  are  consid- 
ered as  so  true  as  to  lose  all  the  powers  of 
truth,  and  lie  bed-ridden  in  the  dormitory  of 
the  soul,  side  by  side,  with  the  most  despised 
and  exploded  errors.  But  it  should  not  be  so 
with  you !  The  pride  of  education,  the  sense  of 
consistency  should  preclude  the  objection :  for 
would  you  not  be  ashamed  to  apply  it  to  the 
works  of  Tacitus,  or  of  Shakespeare  1  Above 
all,  the  rank  which  you  hold,  the  influence  you 
possess,  the  powers  you  may  be  called  to 
wield,  give  a  special  unfitness  to  this  frivolous 
craving  for  novelty.  To  find  no  contradiction 
in  the  union  of  the  old  and  new,  to  contem- 
plate the  ancient  of  days,  his  words  and  his 
works,  with  a  feeling  as  fresh  as  if  they  were 
now  first  springing  forth  at  his  fiat — this  char- 
acterizes the  minds  that  feel  the  riddle  of  the 
world  and  may  help  to  unravel  it !  This,  most 
of  all  things,  will  raise  you  above  the  mass  of 
mankind,  and  therefore  will  best  entitle  and 
qualify  you  to  guide  and  controul  them !  You 
say?  you  are  already  familiar  with  the  Scrip- 
tures. With  the  words,  perhaps,  but  in  any 
other  sense  you  might  as  wisely  boast  of  your 


35 

familiar  acquaintance  with  the  rays  of  the  sun, 
and  under  that  pretence  turn  away  your  eyes 
from  the  light  of  Heaven. 

Or  would  you  wish  for  authorities? — for 
great  examples  ? — You  may  find  them  in  the 
writings  of  Thuanus,  of  Lord  Clarendon,  of  Sir 
Thomas  More,  of  Raleigh;  and  in  the  life  and 
letters  of  the  heroic  Gustavus  Adolphus.  But 
these,  though  eminent  statesmen  were  christ- 
ians, and  might  lie  under  the  thraldom  of  hab- 
it and  prejudice.  I  will  refer  you  then  to 
authorities  of  two  great  men,  both  pagans  ;  but 
removed  from  each  other  by  many  centuries, 
and  not  more  distant  in  their  ages  than  in  their 
characters  and  situations.  The  first  shall  be  that 
of  Heraclitus,  the  sad  and  recluse  philosopher. 

IIoXufAaOj*]  voov  o'v  8i8u<fx£t'  2j'/3uXXa  <5s  (xaivojxsvp  go/xan 
'ayi'haea.  xai  a'xaXXwiriga  xai  'a^iga  (pSsyyo^ivr}  ^»Xi'wv  s<rww 

ifixvsirai  r?j  <pwv(7  8ia  to'v  6e6v*  Shall  we  hesitate  to 
apply  to  the  prophets  of  God,  what  could  be 
affirmed  of  the  Sibylls  by  a  philosopher  whom 

*  Translation. — Multiscience  (or  a  variety  and  quantity  of 
acquired  knowledge)  does  not  teach  intelligence.  But  the 
Sibyll  with  wild  enthusiastic  mouth  shrilling  forth  unmirthful, 
inornate,  and  unperfumed  truths  reaches  to  a  thousand  years 
with  her  voice  through  the  power  of  God. 


36 

Socrates,  the  prince  of  the  philosophers,  vene- 
rated for  the  profundity  of  his  wisdom  *? 

For  the  other,  I  will  refer  you  to  the  darling 
of  the  polished  court  of  Augustus,  to  the  man 
whose  works  have  been  in  all  ages  deemed  the 
models  of  good  sense,  and  are  still  the  pocket 
companions  of  those  who  pride  themselves  on 
uniting  the  scholar  with  the  gentleman.  This 
accomplished  man  of  the  world  has  given  an 
account  of  the  subjects  of  conversation  between 
the  illustrious  statesmen  who  governed,  and  the 
brightest  luminaries  who  then  adorned,  the  em- 
pire of  the  civilized  world : 


Sermo  oritur  non  de  villis  domibusve  alienis 
Nee,  male,  nee  ne  lepus  saltet.    Sed  quod  magis  ad  nos 
Pertinet,  et  nescire  malum  est,  agitamus :  utrumne 
Divitiis  homines,  an  sint  virtute  beati  ? 
Et  quo  sit  natura  boni?  summumque  quid  eius?* 

Horat.  Sermon,  L.  II.  Sat.  6.  v.  71. 


*  Translation. — Conversation  arises  not  concerning  the 
country  seats  or  families  of  strangers  in  a  neighbourhood,  or 
whether  the  dancing  hare  performed  well  or  ill.  But  we  dis- 
cuss what  more  nearly  concerns  us,  and  which  it  is  an  evil 
not  to  know :  whether  men  are  made  happy  by  wealth  or  by 
virtue  ?  In  what  consists  the  nature  of  good  ?  And  what  is 
the  Supreme  good  and  to  be  our  ultimate  aim  ? 


37 

Berkeley  indeed  asserts,  and  is  supported  in 
his  assertion  by  the  great  statesmen,  Lord 
Bacon  and  Sir  Walter  Raleigh,  that  without 
an  habitual  interest  in  these  subjects  a  man 
may  be  a  dexterous  intriguer,  but  never  can  be 
a  statesman.     (The  Friend  No.  5.) 

But  do  you  require  some  one  or  more  par- 
ticular passage  from  the  Bible,  that  may  at 
once  illustrate  and  exemplify  its  applicability 
to  the  changes  and  fortunes  of  empires  ?  Of 
the  numerous  chapters  that  relate  to  the  Jew- 
ish tribes,  their  enemies  and  allies,  before  and 
after  their  division  into  two  kingdoms,  it  would 
be  more  difficult  to  state  a  single  one,  from 
which  some  guiding  light  might  not  be  struck. 
And  in  nothing  is  Scriptural  history  more  strong- 
ly contrasted  with  the  histories  of  highest  note 
in  the  present  age,  than  in  its  freedom  from 
the  hollowness  of  abstractions.  While  the  lat- 
ter present  a  shadow-fight  of  Things  and 
Quantities,  the  former  gives  us  the  history  of 
Men,  and  balances  the  important  influence  of 
individual  Minds  with  the  previous  state  of  the 
national  morals  and  manners,  in  which,  as  con- 
stituting a  specific  susceptibility,  it  presents  to 
us  the  true  cause  both  of  the  Influence  itself, 


38 

and  of  the  Weal  or  Woe  that  were  its  conse- 
quents* How  should  it  be  otherwise  ?  The 
histories  and  political  economy  of  the  present 
and  preceding  century  partake  in  the  general 
contagion  of  its  mechanic  philosophy,  and  are 
the  product  of  an  unenlivened  generalizing  Un- 
derstanding* In  the  Scriptures  they  are  the 
living  educts  of  the  Imagination ;  of  that  re- 
conciling and  mediatory  power,  which  incorpo- 
rating the  Reason  in  Images  of  the  Sense,  and 
organizing  (as  it  were)  the  flux  of  the  Senses 
by  the  permanence  and  self-circling  energies 
of  the  Reason,  gives  birth  to  a  system  of  sym- 
bols, harmonious  in  themselves,  and  consub- 
stantial  with  the  truths,  of  which  they  are  the 
conductors.  These  are  the  Wheels  which 
Ezekiel  beheld,  when  the  hand  of  the  Lord 
was  upon  him,  and  he  saw  visions  of  God  as 
he  sate  among  the  captives  by  the  river  of 
Chebar.  Whithersoever  the  Spirit  was  to  go, 
the  wheels  went,  and  thither  was  their  spirit  to 
go  :  for  the  spirit  of  the  living  creature  teas  in 
the  wheels  also.  The  truths  and  the  symbols 
that  represent  them  move  in  conjunction  and 
form  the  living  chariot  that  bears  up  (for  us) 
the  throne  of  the  Divine  Humanity.     Hence, 


39 

by  a  derivative,  indeed,  but  not  a  divided,  in- 
fluence, and  though  in  a  secondary  yet  in  more 
than  a  metaphorical  sense,  the  Sacred  Book 
is  worthily  intitled  the  word  of  god.  Hence 
too,  its  contents  present  to  us  the  stream  of 
time  continuous  as  Life  and  a  symbol  of  Eter- 
nity, inasmuch  as  the  Past  and  the  Future  are 
virtually  contained  in  the  Present.  According 
therefore  to  our  relative  position  on  its  banks 
the  Sacred  History  becomes  prophetic,  the 
Sacred  Prophecies  historical,  while  the  power 
arid  substance  of  both  inhere  in  its  Laws,  its 
Promises,  and  its  Comminations.  In  the  Scrip- 
tures therefore  both  Facts  and  Persons  must 
of  necessity  have  a  two -fold  significance,  a  past 
and  a  future,  a  temporary  and  a  perpetual,  a 
particular  and  a  universal  application.  They 
must  be  at  once  Portraits  and  Ideals. 

Eheu !  paupertina  philosophia  in  paupertinam 
religionemducit: — A  hunger-bitten  and  idea- 
less  philosophy  naturally  produces  a  starveling 
and  comfortless  religion.  It  is  among  the  mise- 
ries of  the  present  age  that  it  recognizes  no 
medium  between  Literal  and  Metaphorical. 
Faith  is  either  to  be  buried  in  the  dead  letter, 
or  its  name  and  honours  usurped  by  a  counter- 


V  40 

feit  product  of  the  mechanical  understanding, 
which  in  the  blindness  of  self-complacency 
confounds  symbols  with  allegories.  Now 
an  Allegory  is  but  a  translation  of  abstract  no- 
tions into  a  picture-language  which  is  itself 
nothing  but  an  abstraction  from  objects  of  the 
senses;  the  principal  being  more  worthless 
even  than  its  phantom  proxy,  both  alike  un- 
substantial, and  the  former  shapeless  to  boot. 
On  the  other  hand  a  Symbol  (5  few  «si  rauT^opwov) 
is  characterized  by  a  translucence  of  the  Special 
in  the  Individual  or  of  the  General  in  the 
Especial  or  of  the  Universal  in  the  General. 
Above  all  by  the  translucence  of  the  Eternal 
through  and  in  the  Temporal.  It  always  par- 
takes of  the  Reality  which  it  renders  intelligible; 
and  while  it  enunciates  the  whole,  abides  itself 
as  a  living  part  in  that  Unity,  of  which  it  is  the 
representative.  The  other  are  but  empty  echoes 
which  the  fancy  arbitrarily  associates  with  ap- 
paritions of  matter,  less  beautiful  but  not  less 
shadowy  than  the  sloping  orchard  or  hill-side 
pasture-field  seen  in  the  transparent  lake  be- 
low. Alas !  for  the  flocks  that  are  to  be  led 
forth  to  such  pastures !  *  It  shall  even  be  as  when 
the  hungry  dreameth,  and  behold  /  he  eateth ;  but 


41 

he  waketh  and  his  soul  is  empty  :  or  as  when  thet 
thirsty  dreameth,  and  behold  he  drinketh  ;  but  he 
awaketh  and  is  faint!"  (Isaiah  xxix.  8.)  O!  that 
we  would  seek  for  the  bread  which  was  given 
from  heaven,  that  we  should  eat  thereof  and  be 
strengthened !  O  that  we  would  draw  at  the  well 
at  which  the  flocks  of  our  fore-fathers  had  living 
water  drawn  for  them,  even  that  water  which, 
instead  of  mocking  the  thirst  of  him  to  whom 
it  is  given,  becomes  a  well  within  himself 
springing  up  to  life  everlasting ! 

When  we  reflect  how  large  a  part  of  our 
present  knowledge  and  civilization  is  owing, 
directly  or  indirectly,  to  the  Bible ;  when  we 
are  compelled  to  admit,  as  a  fact  of  history, 
that  the  Bible  has  been  the  main  Lever  by 
which  the  moral  and  intellectual  character  of 
Europe  has  been  raised  to  its  present  compara* 
tive  height ;  we  should  be  struck,  me  thinks,  by 
the  marked  and  prominent  difference  of  this 
Book  from  the  works  which  it  is  now  the  fash- 
ion  to  quote  as  guides  and  authorities  in  morals, 
politics  and  history .  I  will  point  out  a  few  of 
the  excellencies  by  which  the  one  is  distin- 
guished, and  shall  leave  it  to  your  own  judgment 
and  recollection  to  perceive  and  apply  the  con- 


42 

trast  to  the  productions  of  highest  name  in 
these  latter  days.  In  the  Bible  every  agent 
appears  and  acts  as  a  self- subsisting  individual : 
each  has  a  life  of  its  own,  and  yet  all  are  one 
life.  The  elements  of  necessity  and  free-will 
are  reconciled  in  the  higher  power  of  an  om- 
nipresent Providence,  that  predestinates  the 
whole  in  the  moral  freedom  of  the  integral  parts. 
Of  this  the  Bible  never  suffers  us  to  lose  sight 
The  root  is  never  detached  from  the  ground. 
It  is  God  eveiywhere :  and  all  creatures  con- 
form to  his  decrees,  the  righteous  by  perform- 
ance of  the  law,  the  disobedient  by  the 
sufferance  of  the  penalty. 

Suffer  me  to  inform  or  remind  you,  that 
there  is  a  threefold  Necessity.  There  is  a 
logical,  and  there  is  a  mathematical,  necessity ; 
but  the  latter  is  always  hypothetical,  and  both 
subsist  formally  only,  not  in  any  real  object 
Only  by  the  intuition  and  immediate  spiritual 
consciousness  of  the  idea  of  God,  as  the  One 
and  Absolute,  at  once  the  Ground  and  the 
Cause,  who  alone  containeth  in  himself  the 
ground  of  his  own  nature,  and  therein  of  all 
natures,  do  we  arrive  at  the  third,  which  alone 
.is  a  real  objective,  necessity.     Here  the  imme- 


43 

diate  consciousness  decides:  the  idea  is  its 
own  evidence,  and  is  insusceptible  of  all  other. 
It  is  necessarily  groundless  and  indemonstra- 
ble; because  it  is  itself  the  ground  of  all 
possible  demonstration.  The  Reason  hath  faith 
in  itself,  in  its  own  revelation,  o  Aoros  e*h. 
Ipse  dixit  !  So  it  is :  for  it  is  so  !  All  the 
necessity  of  causal  relations  (which  the  mere 
understanding  reduces,  and  must  reduce  to 
co-existence  and  regular  succession*  in  the 
objects  of  which  they  are  predicated,  and  to 
habit  and  association  in  the  mind  predicating) 
depends  on,  or  rather  inheres  in,  the  idea  of 
the  Omnipresent  and  Absolute :  for  this  it  is, 
in  which  the  Possible  is  one  and  the  same  with 
the  Real  and  the  Necessary.  Herein  the  Bi- 
ble differs  from  all  the  books  of  Greek  philoso- 
phy, and  in  a  two -fold  manner.  It  doth  not 
affirm  a  Divine  Nature  only,  but  a  God :  and 
not  a  God  only,  but  the  living  God.  Hence 
in  the  Scriptures  alone  is  the  Jus  divinum,  or 
direct  Relation  of  the  State  and  its  Magistracy 
to  the  Supreme  Being,  taught  as  a  vital  and 

*  See  Hume's  Essays.  The  sophist  evades,  as  Cicero  long 
ago  remarked,  the  better  half  of  the  predicament,  which  is 
not  "  prseire"  but  "  efficienter  prseire." 


44 

indispensable  part  of  all  moral  and  of  all  polit- 
ical wisdom,  even  as  the  Jewish  alone  was  a' 
true  theocracy. 

But  I  refer  to  the  demand.  Were  it  my 
object  to  touch  on  the  present  state  of  public 
affairs  in  this  kingdom,  or  on  the  prospective 
measures  in  agitation  respecting  our  sister-isl- 
and, I  would  direct  your  most  serious  medi- 
tations to  the  latter  period  of  the  reign  of  Solo- 
mon, and  to  the  revolutions  in  the  reign  of 
Rehoboam,  his  successor.  But  I  should  tread 
on  glowing  embers.  I  will  turn  to  a  subject 
on  which  all  men  of  reflection  are  at  length 
in  agreement — the  causes  of  the  revolution 
and  fearful  chastisement  of  France.  We  have 
learned  to  trace  them  back  to  the  rising  im- 
portance of  the  commercial  and  manufacturing 
class,  and  its  incompatibility  with  the  old  feudal 
privileges  and  prescriptions;  to  the  spirit  of 
sensuality  and  ostentation,  which  from  the 
court  had  spread  through  all  the  towns  and 
cities  of  the  empire ;  to  the  predominance  of  a 
presumptuous  and  irreligious  philosophy ;  to 
the  extreme  over-rating  of  the  knowledge  and 
power  given  by  the  improvements  of  the  arts 
and  sciences,,  especially  those  of  astronomy, 


45 

mechanics,  and  a  wonder-working  chemistry ; 
to  an  assumption  of  prophetic  power,  and  the 
general  conceit  that  states  and  governments 
might  be  and  ought  to  be  constructed  as  ma- 
chines, every  movement  of  which  might  be 
foreseen  and  taken  into  previous  calculation ; 
to  the  consequent  multitude  of  plans  and  con- 
stitutions, of  planners  and  constitution-makers, 
and  the  remorseless  arrogance  with  which  the 
authors  and  proselytes  of  every  new  proposal 
were  ready  to  realize  it,  be  the  cost  what  it 
might  in  the  established  rights,  or  even  in  the 
lives,  of  men ;  in  short,  to  restlessness,  pre- 
sumption, sensual  indulgence,  and  the  idola- 
trous reliance  on  false  philosophy  in  the  whole 
domestic,  social,  and  political  life  of  the  stirring 
and  effective  part  of  the  community:  these 
all  acting,  at  once  and  together,  on  a  mass  of 
materials  supplied  by  the  unfeeling  extrava- 
gance and  oppressions  of  the  government, 
which  'shewed  no  mercy,  and  very  heavily 
laid  its  yoke.' 

Turn  then  to  the  chapter  from  which  the 
last  words  were  cited,  and  read  the  following 
seven  verses ;  and  I  am  deceived  if  you  will 
not  be  compelled  to  admit,  that  the  Prophet 


46 

Isaiah  revealed  the  true  philosophy  of  the 
French  revolution  more  than  two  thousand 
years  before  it  became  a  sad  irrevocable  truth 
of  history.  *  And  thou  saidst,  I  shall  be  a  lady 
for  ever:  so  that  thou  didst  not  lay  these 
things  to  thy  heart,  neither  didst  remember 
the  latter  end  of  it.  Therefore,  hear  now  this, 
thou  that  art  given  to  pleasures,  that  dwellest 
carelessly,  that  sayest  in  thine  heart,  I  am,  and 
none  else  besides  me!  I  shall  not  sit  as  a 
widow,  neither  shall  I  know  the  loss  of  chil- 
dren. But  these  two  things  shall  come  to  thee 
in  a  moment,  in  one  day ;  the  loss  of  children, 
and  widowhood ;  they  shall  come  upon  thee  in 
their  perfection,  for  the  multitude  of  thy  sorce- 
ries, and  for  the  abundance  of  thine  enchant- 
ments. For  thou  hast  trusted  in  thy  wicked- 
ness ;  thou  hast  said,  there  is  no  overseer. 
Thy  wisdom  and  thy  knowledge,  it  hath  per- 
verted thee ;  and  thou  hast  said  in  thine  heart, 
I  am,  and  none  else  besides  me.  Therefore 
shall  evil  come  upon  thee,  thou  shalt  not  know* 

*  The  reader  will  scarcely  fail  to  find  in  this  verse  a  re- 
membrancer of  the  sudden  setting-in  of  the  frost,  a  fortnight 
before  the  usual  time  (in  a  country  too,  where  the  commence- 
ment of  its  two  seasons  is  in  general  scarcely  less  regular  than 


47 

from  whence  it  riseth :  and  mischief  shall  fall 
upon  thee,  thou  shalt  not  be  able  to  put  it  off; 
and  desolation  shall  come  upon  thee  suddenly, 
which  thou  shalt  not  know.  Stand  now  with 
thine  enchantments,  and  with  the  multitude  of 
thy  sorceries,  wherein  thou  hast  laboured  from 
thy  youth ;  if  so  be  thou  shalt  be  able  to  pro- 
fit, if  so  be  thou  mayest  prevail.  Thou  art 
wearied  in  the  multitude  of  thy  counsels :  let 
now  the  astrologers,  the  stargazers,  the  monthly 
prognosticators  stand  up,  and  save  thee  from 
these  things  that  shall  come  upon  thee.' 

There  is  a  grace  that  would  enable  us  to  take 
up  vipers,  and  the  evil  thing  shall  not  hurt  us  : 
a  spiritual  alchemy  which  can  transmute  poi- 
sons into  a  panacaea.  We  are  counselled  by 
our  Lord  himself  to  make  unto  ourselves  friends 
of  the  mammon  of  Unrighteousness :    and  in 

that  of  the  wet  and  dry  seasons  between  the  tropics)  which 
caused,  and  the  desolation  which  accompanied,  the  flight  from 
Moscow.  The  Rusians  baffled  the  physical  forces  of  the  im- 
perial Jacobin,  because  they  were  inaccessible  to  his  imagina- 
ry forces.  The  faith  in  St.  Nicholas  kept  off  at  safe  distance 
the  more  pernicious  superstition  of  the  Destinies  of  Napoleon 
the  Great.  The  English  in  the  Peninsula  overcame  the  real, 
because  they  set  at  defiance,  and  had  heard  only  to  despise, 
the  imaginary  powers  of  the  irresistible  Emperor.  Thank 
heaven,  the  heart  of  the  country  was  sound  at  the  core. 


48 

this  age  of  sharp  contrasts  and  grotesque  com- 
binations it  would  be  a  wise  method  of  sympa- 
thizing, with  the  tone  and  spirit  of  the  Times, 
if  we  elevated  even  our  daily  news-papers  and 
political  journals  into  Comments  on  the  Bi- 
ble. 

When  I  named  this  Essay  a  Sermon,  I  sought 
to  prepare  the  inquirers  after  it  for  the  absence 
of  all  the  usual  softenings  suggested  by  world- 
ly prudence  of  all  compromise  between  truth 
and  courtesy.  But  not  even  as  a  Sermon 
would  I  have  addressed  the  present  Discourse 
to  a  promiscuous  audience  ;  and  for  this  reason 
I  likewise  announced  it  in  the  title-page,  as 
exclusively  ad  clerum;  i.  e.  (in  the  old  and 
wide  sense  of  the  word)  to  men  of  clerkly  ac- 
quirements, of  whatever  profession.  I  would 
that  the  greater  part  of  our  publications  could 
be  thus  directed,  each  to  its  appropriate  class  of 
Readers.  But  this  cannot  be!  For  among 
other  odd  burs  and  kecksies,  the  misgrowth  of 
our  luxuriant  activity,  we  have  now  a  Read- 
ing Public*— as  strange  a  phrase,  methinks, 

*  Some  particle  passive  in  the  diminutive  form  Erttditd- 
i/ORUM  Natio  for  instance,  might  seem  at  first  sight  a  fuller 
and  more  exact  designation ;  but  the  superior  force  and  hu- 


49 

as  ever  forced  a  splenetic  smile  on  the  staid 
countenance  of  Meditation ;  and  yet  no  fiction ! 
For  our  Readers  have,  in  good  truth,  multipli- 
ed exceedingly,  and  have  waxed  proud.  It 
would  require  the  intrepid  accuracy  of  a  Col- 
quhoun  to  venture  at  the  precise  number  of 

mor  of  the  former  become  evident  whenever  the  phrase 
occurs  as  a  step  or  stair  in  a  climax  of  irony.  By  way  of 
example  take  the  following  sentences,  transcribed  from  a 
work  demonstrating  that  the  New  Testament  was  intended 
exclusively  for  the  primitive  converts  from  Judaism,  was 
accommodated  to  their  prejudices,  and  is  of  no  authority,  as  a 
rule  of  faith,  for  Christians  in  general.  '  The  Reading  Public 
in  this  Enlightened  Age,  and  Thinking  Nation,  by  its  fa- 
vourable reception  of  liberal  ideas,  has  long  demonstrated 
the  benign  influence  of  that  profound  Philosophy  which 
has  already  emancipated  us  from  so  many  absurd  prejudices 
held  in  superstitious  awe  by  our  deluded  forefathers.  But  the 
Dark  Jlge  yielded  at  length  to  the  dawning  light  of  Reason 
and  Common-Sense  at  the  glorious,  though  imperfect,  Revo- 
lution. The  People  can  be  no  longer  duped  or  scared  out 
of  their  imprescriptible  and  inalienable  Right  to  judge  and  de- 
cide for  themselves  on  all  important  questions  of  Government 
and  Religion.  The  scholastic  jargon  of  jarring  articles  and 
metaphysical  creeds  may  continue  for  a  time  to  deform  our 
Church-establishment;  and  like  the  grotesque  figures  in  the 
nitches  of  our  old  gothic  cathedrals  may  serve  to  remind  the 
nation  of  its  former  barbarism  ;  but  the  universal  suffrage  of  a 

FREE  AND  ENLIGHTENED  PUBLIC,"  &C.   &C. ! 

Among  the  Revolutions  worthy  of  notice,  the  change  in  the 
nature  of  the  introductory  sentences  and  prefatory  matter  in 
5 


50 

that  vast  company  only,  whose  heads  and 
hearts  are  dieted  at  the  two  public  ordinaries 
of  Literature,  the  circulating  libraries  and  the 
periodical  press.  But  what  is  the  result?  Does 
the  inward  man  thrive  on  this  regimen  1  Alas ! 
if  the  average  health  of  the  consumers  may  be 
judged  of  by  the  articles  of  largest  consumption ; 
if  the  secretions  may  be  conjectured  from  the 
ingredients  of  the  dishes  that  are  found  best 
suited  to  their  palates;  from  all  that  I  have 
seen,  either  of  the  banquet  or  the  guests,  I 

gerious  Books  is  not  the  least  striking.  The  same  gross  flatte- 
ry which  disgusts  us  in  the  dedications  to  individuals  in  the 
elder  writers,  is  now  transferred  to  the  Nation  at  large  or  the 
Reading  Public  :  while  the  Jeremiads  of  our  old  Moralists, 
and  their  angry  denunciations  concerning  the  ignorance,  im- 
morality, and  irreligion  of  the  People,  appear  (mutatis  mutandis, 
and  with  an  appeal  to  the  worst  passions,  envy,  discontent, 
scorn,  vindictiveness,  &c.)  in  the  shape  of  bitter  libels  on  Min- 
isters, Parliament,  the.  Clergy:  in  short,  on  the  State  and 
Church,  and  all  persons  employed  in  them.  Likewise,  I 
would  point  out  to  the  Reader's  attention  the  marvellous  pre- 
dominance at  present  of  the  words,  Idea  and  Demonstration. 
Every  talker  now  a  days  has  an  Idea ;  aye,  and  he  will  de- 
monstrate it  too !  A  few  days  ago,  I  heard  one  of  the 
Reading  Public,  a  thinking  and  independent  smuggler,  eu- 
phonize the  latter  word  with  much  significance,  in  a  tirade 
against  the  planners  of  the  late  African  expedition : —  "  As  to 
Algiers,  any  man  that  has  half  an  Idea  in  his  skull,  must  know, 
that  it  has  been  long  ago  dey-monstered,  I  should  say,  dey-mon- 


51 

shall  utter  my  Profaccia  with  a  desponding 
sigh.  From  a  popular  philosophy  and  a  phi- 
losophic populace,  Good  Sense  deliver  us ! 

At  present,  however,  I  am  to  imagine  for 
myself  a  very  different  audience.  I  appeal 
exclusively  to  men,  from  whose  station  and 
opportunities  I  may  dare  anticipate  a  respecta- 
ble portion  of  that  "sound  book  leamedness" 
into  which  our  old  public  schools  still  con- 
tinue to  initiate  their  pupils.  I  appeal  to  men 
in  whom  I  may  hope  to  find,  if  not  philosophy, 
yet  occasional  impulses  at  least  to  philosophic 
thought.  And  here,  as  far  as  my  own  experi- 
ence extends,  I  can  announce  one  favourable 

strified,  &c."  But  the  phrase,  which  occasioned  this  note, 
brings  to  my  mind  the  mistake  of  a  lethargic  Dutch  traveller, 
who  returning  highly  gratified  from  a  showman's  caravan, 
which  he  had.  been  tempted  to  enter  by  the  words,  The 
Learned  Pig,  gilt  on  the  pannels,  met  another  caravan  of  a 
similar  shape,  with  The  Reading  Fly  on  it,  in  letters  of  the 
same  size  and  splendour.  "  Why,  dis  is  voonders  above  voon- 
ders !"  exclaims  the  Dutchman,  takes  his  seat  as  first  comer, 
and  soon  fatigued  by  waiting,  and  by  the  very  hush  and  in- 
tensity of  his  expectation,  gives  way  to  his  constitutional  som- 
nulence,  from  which  he  is  roused  by 'the  supposed  showman 
at  Hounslow,  with  a  "  In  what  name,  Sir!  was  your  place  taken? 
Are  you  booked  all  the  way  for  Reading  ? — Now  a  Reading  Pub- 
lic is  (to  my  mind)  more  marvellous  still,  and  in  the  third  tier 
of  "  voonders  above  voonders." 


52 

symptom.  The  notion  of  our  measureless  su- 
periority in  good  sense  to  our  ancestors,  so 
general  at  the  commencement  of  the  French 
Revolution,  and  for  some  years  before  it,  is  out 
of  fashion.  We  hear,  at  least,  less  of  the  jar- 
gon of  this  enlightened  age.  After  fatiguing 
itself,  as  performer  or  spectator  in  the  giddy 
figure-dance  of  political  changes,  Europe  has 
s6en  the  shallow  foundations  of  its  self-com- 
placent faith  give  way;  and  among  men  of 
influence  and  property,  we  have  now  more 
reason  to  apprehend  the  stupor  of  despondence, 
than  the  extravagancies  of  hope,  unsustained 
by  experience,  or  of  self-confidence  not  bot- 
tomed on  principle. 

In  this  rank  of  life  the  danger  lies,  not  in 
any  tendency  to  innovation,  but  in  the  choice 
of  the  means  for  preventing  it.  And  here  my 
apprehensions  point  to  two  opposite  errors; 
each  of  which  deserves  a  separate  notice.  The 
first  consists  in  a  disposition  to  think,  that  as 
the  Peace  of  Nations  has  been  disturbed  by 
the  diffusion  of  a  false  light,  it  may  be  re-estab- 
lished by  excluding  the  people  from  all  knowl- 
edge and  all  prospect  of  amelioration.  O! 
never,  never !   Reflection  and  stirrings  of  mind, 


53 

with  all  their  restlessness,  and  all  the  errors 
that  result  from  their  imperfection,  from  the 
Too  much,  because  Too  little,  are  come  into 
the  world.  The  Powers,  that  awaken  and 
foster  the  spirit  of  curiosity,  are  to  be  found 
in  every  village:-  Books  are  in  every  hovel. 
The  infant's  cries  are  hushed  with  picture- 
books  :  and  the  Cottager's  child  sheds  his  first 
bitter  tears  over  pages,  which  render  it  im- 
possible for  the  man  to  be  treated  or  governed 
as  a  child.  Here  as  in  so  many  other  cases, 
the  inconveniences  that  have  arisen  from  a 
things'  having  become  too  general,  are  best 
removed  by  making  it  universal. 

The  other  and  contrary  mistake  proceeds 
from  the  assumption,  that  a  national  education 
will  have  been  realized  whenever  the  People 
at  large  have  been  taught  to  read  and  write. 
Now  among  the  many  means  to  the  desired 
end,  this  is  doubtless  one,  and  not  the  least , 
important.  But  neither  is  it  the  most  so. 
Much  less  can  it  be  held  to  constitute  Educa- 
tion, which  consists  in  educing  the  faculties, 
and  forming  the  habits ;  the  means  varying  ac-  . 
cording  to  the  sphere  in  which  the  individuals 
to  be  educated  are  likely  to  act  and  become 


54 

useful.  I  do  not  hesitate  to  declare,  that 
whether  I  consider  the  nature  of  the  disci- 
pline adopted,*  or  the  plan  of  poisoning  the 
children  of  the  poor  with  a  sort  of  potential  in- 
fidelity under  the  "  liberal  idea"  of  teaching 
those  points  only  of  religious  faith,  in  which 
all  denominations  agree,  I  cannot  but  denounce 
the  so  called  Lancastrian  schools  as  pernicious 
beyond  all  power  of  compensation  by  the  new 
acquirement  of  Reading  and  Writing. — But 
take  even  Dr.  Bell's  original  and  Unsophisticated 
plan,  which  I  myself  regard  as  an  especial  gift 
of  Providence  to  the  human  race  ;  and  suppose 
this  incomparable  machine,  this  vast  moral 
steam-engine  to  have  been  adopted  and  in  free 
motion  throughout  the  Empire ;  it  would  yet 
appear  to  me  a  most  dangerous  delusion  to  rely 
on  it  as  if  this  of  itself  formed  an  efficient  na- 
tional education.     We  cannot,  I  repeat,  honour 

*  See  Mr.  Southey's  Tract  on  the  New  or  Madras  sys- 
tem of  Education :  especially  toward  the  conclusion,  where 
with  exquisite  humour  as  well  as  with  his  usual  poignancy  of 
wit  he  has  detailed  Joseph  Lancaster's  disciplinarian  Inven- 
tions. But  even  in  the  schools,  that  used  to  be  called  Lancas- 
trian, these  are,  I  believe,  discontinued.  The  true  perfection 
of  discipline  in  a  school  is — The  maximum  of  watchfulness 
with  the  minimum  of  punishment. 


55 

the  scheme  too  highly  as  a  prominent  and  ne- 
cessary part  of  the  great  process ;  but  it  will 
neither  supersede  nor  can  it  be  substituted  for 
sundry  other  measures,  that  are  at  least  equal- 
ly important.  And  these  are  such  measures 
too,  as  unfortunately  involve  the  necessity  of 
sacrifices  on  the  side  of  the  rich  and  powerful 
more  costly,  and  far  more  difficult  than  the 
yearly  subscription  of  a  few  pounds !  such 
measures  as  demand  more  self-denial  than  the 
expenditure  of  time  in  a  committee  or  of  elo- 
quence in  a  public  meeting. 

Nay,  let  Dr.  Bell's  philanthropic  end  have 
been  realized,  and  the  proposed  medicum  of 
learning  universal:  yet  convinced  of  its  insuffi- 
ciency to  stem  up  against  the  strong  currents 
set  in  from  an  opposite  point,  I  dare  not  assure 
myself,  that  it  may  not  be  driven  backward  by 
them  and  become  confluent  with  the  evils,  it 
was  intended  to  preclude. 

What  other  measures  I  had  in  contemplation, 
it  has  been  my  endeavour  to  explain  elsewhere. 
But  I  am  greatly  deceived,  if  one  preliminary 
to  an  efficient  education  of  the  labouring  class- 
es be  not  the  recurrence  to  a  more  manly 
discipline  of  the  intellect  on  the  part  of  the 


56 

learned  themselves,  in  short  a  thorough  re- 
casting of  the  moulds,  in  which  the  minds  of 
our  Gentry,  the  characters  of  our  future  Land- 
owners, Magistrates  and  Senators,  are  to  re- 
ceive their  shape  and  fashion.  0  what  treasures 
of  practical  wisdom  would  be  once  more  brought 
into  open  day  by  the  solution  of  this  problem ! 
Suffice  it  for  the  present  to  hint  the  master- 
thought.  The  first  man,  on  whom  the  Light  of 
an  Idea  dawned,  did  in  that  same  moment  re- 
ceive the  spirit  and  the  credentials  of  a  Law- 
giver: and  as  long  as  man  shall  exist,  so  long 
will  the  possession  of  that  antecedent  knowl- 
edge (the  maker  and,  master  of  all  profitable 
Experience)  which  exists  only  in  the  power  of 
an  Idea,  be  the  one  lawful  qualification  of  all 
Dominion  in  the  world  of  the  senses.  With- 
out this,  Experience  itself  is  but  a  cyclops 
walking  backwards,  under  the  fascination  of 
the  Past :  and  we  are  indebted  to  a  lucky  co- 
incidence of  outward  circumstances  and  con- 
tingencies, least  of  all  things  to  be  calculated 
on  in  times  like  the  present,  if  this  one-eyed 
Experience  does  not  seduce  its  worshipper  into 
practical  anachronisms. 
But  alas !  the  halls  of  old  philosophy  have 


57 

been  so  long  deserted,  that  we  circle  them  at 
shy  distance  as  the  haunt  of  Phantoms  and 
Chimaeras.  The  sacred  Grove  of  Academus 
is  held  in  like  regard  with  the  unfoodful  trees 
in  the  shadowy  world  of  Maro  that  had  a 
dream  attached  to  every  leaf.  The  very  terms 
of  ancient  wisdom  are  worn  out,  or  (far  worse1!) 
stamped  on  baser  metal :  and  whoever  should 
have  the  hardihood  to  reproclaim  its  solemn 
Truths  must  commence  with  a  Glossary. 

In  reviewing  the  foregoing  pages,  I  am  ap- 
prehensive that  they  may  be  thought  to  re- 
semble the  overflow  of  an  earnest  mind  rather 
than  an  orderly  premeditated  composition.  Yet 
this  imperfection  of  form  will  not  be  altogether 
uncompensated,  if  it  should  be  the  means  of 
presenting  with  greater  liveliness  the  feelings 
and  impressions  under  which  they  were  writ- 
ten. Still  less  shall  I  regrej  this  defect  if  it 
should  induce  some  future  traveller  engaged 
in  the  like,  journey  to  take  the  same  station 
and  to  look  through  the  same  medium  at  the 
one  main  object  which  amid  all  my  discursions 
I  have  still  held  in  view.  The  more,  however, 
doth  it  behoove  me  not  to  conclude  this  address 
without  attempting  to  recapitulate  in  as  few 


58 

and  as  plain  words  as  possible  the  sum  and 
substance  of  its  contents. 
.  There  is  a  state  of  mind  indispensable  for 
all  perusal  of  the  Scriptures  to  edification, 
which  must  be  learnt  by  experience,  and  can 
be  described  only  by  negatives.  It  is  the  di- 
rect opposite  of  that  which  (supposing  a  moral 
passage  of  Scripture  to  have  been  cited)  would 
prompt  a  man  to  reply,  Who  does  not  know 
this  ?  But  if  the  quotation  should  have  been 
made  in  support  of  some  article  of  faith,  this 
same  habit  of  mind  will  betray  itself,  in  differ- 
ent individuals,  by  apparent  contraries,  which 
yet  are  but  the  two  poles,  or  Plus  and  Minus 
states,  of  the  same  influence.  The  latter,  or 
the  negative  pole  may  be  suspected,  as  often 
as  you  hear  a  comment  on  some  high  and  doc- 
trinal text  introduced  with  the  words,  It  only 
means  so  and  so  !  For  instance,  I  object  to  a 
professed  free-thinking  christian  the  following 
solemn  enunciation  of  "  the  riches  of  the  glory 
of  the  mystery  hid  from  ages  and  from  genera- 
tions" by  the  philosophic  Apostle  of  the  Gen- 
tiles. "  Who  (viz.  the  Father)  hath  delivered 
usjrom  the  power  of  darkness  and  hath  transla- 
ted us  into  the  kingdom  of  his  dear  Son:    In 


59 

whom  we  have  redemption  through  his  blood, 
even  the  forgiveness  of  sins:  Who  is  the  image 
of  the  invisible  God,  the  first  born*  of  every 
creature :  For  by  him  were  all  things  created, 
that  are  in  heaven,  and  that  are  in  earth,  visible 
and  invisible,  whether  they  be  thrones,  or  do- 
minions, or  principalities,  or  powers :  all  things 
were  created  by  him,  and  for  him:  And  he  is 
before  all  things,  and  by  him  all  things  -consist. 
And  he  is  the  head  of  the  body,  the  Church : 
who  is  the  beginning,  the  first  bornjrom  the  dead; 
that  in  all  things  he  might  have  the  preeminence. 
For  it  pleased  the  Father  that  in  him  should  all 
^fulness  dwell :  And,  having  made  peace  through 
the  blood  of  his  cross,  by  him  to  reconcile  all 
things  unto  himself;  by  him,  I  say  whether*they 
be  things  in  earth,  or  things  in  heaven"  What 
is  the  reply? — Why,  that  by  these  words 
(very  bold  and  figurative  words  it  must  be 
confessed,  yet  still)  St.  Paul  only  meant  that 
the  universal  and  eternal  truths  of  morality  and 
a  future  state  had  been  reproclaimed  by  an 

*  A  mistaken1  translation.  The  words  should  be :  Begotten 
before  all  creation ;  and  even  this  does  not  convey  the  fuU 
sense  of  the  superlative,  nqoixoxoxog.  The  present  version 
makes  the  following  words  absurd. 


60 

inspired  teacher  and  confirmed  by  miracles! 
The  words  only  mean,  Sir,  that  a  state  of  re- 
tribution after  this  life  had  been  proved  by  the 
fact  of  Christ's  resurrection — that  is  all ! — But 
I  shall  scarcely  obtain  an  answer  to  certain 
difficulties  involved  in  this  free  and  liberal  in- 
terpretation :  ex.  gr.  that  with  the  exception  of 
a  handful  of  rich  men  considered  as  little  better 
than  infidels,  the  Jews  were  as  fully  persuaded 
of  these  truths  as  Christians  in  general  are  at 
the  present  day.  Moreover  that  this  inspired 
Teacher  had  himself  declared  that  if  the  Jews 
did  not  believe  on  the  evidence  of  Moses  and 
the  Prophets,  neither  would  they  though  a  man, 
should  rise  from  the  dead. 

©f  the  positive  pole,  on  the  other  hand,  lan- 
guage to  the  following  purport  is  the  usual 
Exponent.  "It  is  a  mystery:  and  we  are 
bound  to  believe  the  words  without  presuming 
to  enquire  into  the  meaning  of  them."  That 
is  we  believe  in  St.  Paul's  veracity ;  and  that 
is  enough.  Yet  St.  Paul  repeatedly  presses 
on  his  Hearers  that  thoughtful  perusal  of  the 
Sacred  Writings,  and  those  habits  of  earnest 
though  humble  enquiry  which  if  the  heart  only 
have  been  previously  re-generated  would  lead 


61 

them  "to  a  full  assurance  of  Understanding 
lis  swi'/vwciv,  (to  an  entire  assent  of  the  mind ;  to 
a  spiritual  intuition,  or  positive  inward  knowl- 
edge by  experience)  of  the  Mystery  of  God,  and 
of  the  Father,  and  of  Christ,  in  which  (nempe, 
fwrnfioj)  are  hid  all  the  treasures  of  wisdom  and 
knowledge. 

To  expose  the  inconsistency  of  both  thes® 
extremes,  and  by  inference  to  recommend  that 
state  of  mind,  which  looks  forward  to  "  the  fel- 
lowship of  the  mystery  of  the  faith  as  a  spirit  of 
wisdom  and  revelation  in  the  Knowledge  of 
God,  the  eyes  oj  the  Understanding  being 
enlightened — this  formed  my  General  pur- 
pose. Long  has  it  been  at  my  heart !  I  con- 
sider it  as  the  contra- distinguishing  principle  of 
Christianity  that  in  it  alone  «ag  *^Stoc;  wj£  vXr^ofpo- 
pi«s  s%  2yv/tfsw^  (the  Understanding  in  its  utmost 
power  and  opulence)  culminates  in  Faith,  as  in 
its  crown  of  Glory,  at  once  its  light  and  its  re- 
muneration. On  this  most-  important  point  I 
attempted  long  ago  to  preclude,  if  possible,  all 
misconception  and  misinterpretation  of  my 
opinions,  though  in  a  work  which,  from  the 
mode  of  its  publication  and  other  circumstances 
must  be  unknown  or  known  but  by  name  to 


62 

the  great  majority  of  my  present  Readers. 
Alas !  in  this  time  of  distress  and  embarrass- 
ment the  sentiments  have  a  more  especial  in- 
terest, a  more  immediate  application,  than  when 
they  were  first  written.  If  (I  observed)  it  be 
a  Truth  attested  alike  by  common  feeling  and 
common  sense,  that  the  greater  part  of  human 
Misery  depends  directly  on  human  Vices,  and 
the  remainder  indirectly,  by  what  means  can 
we  act  on  Men,  so  as  to  remove  or  preclude 
these  Vices  and  purify  their  principles  of  mor- 
al election?  The  question  is  not  by  what 
means  each  man  is  to  alter  his  own  character — 
in  order  to  this,  all  the  means  prescribed,  and 
all  the  aidances  given  by  religion  may  be  ne- 
cessary for  him.   Vain  ol  themselves  may  be — 

The  sayings  ofthe  Wise 

In  ancient  and  in  modern  books  ehroll'd 


Unless  he  feel  within 
Some  source  of  consolation  from  above, 
Secret  refreshings,  that  repair  his  strength, 
And  fainting  spirits  uphold. 

Sampson  Agonistes. 

This  is  not  the  question.     Virtue  would  not 
be  Virtue  could  it  be  given  by  one  fellow  crea- 


63 

ture  to  another.  To  make  use  of  all  the  means 
and  appliances  in  our  power  to  the  actual  at- 
tainment of  Rectitude,  is  the  abstract  of  the 
Duty  which  we  owe  to  ourselves :  To  supply 
those  means  as  far  as  we  can,  comprizes  our 
Duty  to  others.  The  question  then  is,  what 
are  these  means  1  Can  they  be  any  other  than 
the  communication  of  Knowledge  and  the  re- 
moval of  those  Evils  and  Impediments  which 
prevent  it's  reception  1  It  may  not  be  in  our 
power  to  combine  both,  but  it  is  in  the  power 
of  every  man  to  contribute  to  the  former,  who 
is  sufficiently  informed  to  feel  that  it  is  his  Du- 
ty. If  it  be  said,  that  we  should  endeavour 
not  so  much  to  remove  Ignorance,  as  to  make 
the  Ignorant  religious  :  Religion  herself,  through 
her  sacred  oracles,  answers  for  me,  that  all  ef- 
fective Faith  pre-supposes  Knowledge  and 
individual  Conviction.  If  the  mere  acquies- 
cence in  Truth,  uncomprehended  and  unfath- 
omed,  were  sufficient,  few  indeed  would  be 
the  vicious  and  the  miserable,  in  this  country 
at  least  where  speculative  Infidelity  is,  Heaven 
be  praised,  confined  to  a  small  number.  Like 
bodily  deformity,  there  is  one  instance  here  and 
another  there  ;  but  three  in  one  place  are  al- 


64 

ready  an  undue  proportion.  It  is  highly  worthy 
of  observation,  that  the  inspired  Writings  re- 
ceived by  Christians  are  distinguishable  from 
all  other  books  pretending  to  Inspiration,  from 
the  scriptures  of  the  Bramins,  and  even  from 
the  Koran,  in  their  strong  and  frequent  recom- 
mendations of  Truth.  I  do  not  here  mean 
Veracity,  which  cannot  but  be  enforced  in 
every  Code  which  appeals  to  the  religious 
principle  of  Man ;  but  Knowledge.  This  is 
not  only  extolled  as  the  Crown  and  Honor  of 
a  Man,  but  to  seek  after  it  is  again  and  again 
commanded  us  as  one  of  our  most  sacred  Du- 
ties. Yea,  the  very  perfection  and  final  bliss 
of  the  glorified  spirit  is  represented  by  the 
Apostle  as  a  plain  aspect,  or  intuitive  beholding 
of  truth  in  it's  eternal  and  immutable  source. 
Not  that  Knowledge  can  of  itself  do  all !  The 
light  of  religion  is  not  that  of  the  moon,  light 
without  heat ;  but  neither  is  it's  warmth  that  of 
the  stove,  warmth  without  light.  Religion  is 
the  sun  whose  warmth  indeed  swells,  and  stirs, 
and  actuates  the  life  of  nature,  but  who  at 
the  same  time  beholds  all  the  growth  of  life 
with  a  master- eye,  makes  all  objects  glorious 
on  which  he  looks,  and  by  that  glory  visible 


65 

to  others.  For  this  cause  I  bow  my  knees 
unto  the  Father  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  that 
he  would  grant  you  according  to  the  riches  of  his 
glory,  to  be  strengthened  with  might  by  his  Spir- 
it in  the  inner  man ;  that  Christ  may  dwell  in 
your  hearts  by  faith  ;  that  ye  being  rooted  and 
grounded  in  love,  may  be  able  to  comprehend 
with  all  saints  what  is  the  breadth,  and  length, 
and  depth  and  heighth  ;  and  to  know  the  love 
of  Christ  which  passeth  all  knowledge,  that  ye 
might  be  filled  with  the  fulness  of  God.  For 
to  know  God  is  (by  a  vital  and  spiritual  act  in 
which  to  know  and  to  possess  are  one  and 
indivisible)  to  acknowledge  him  as  the  Infinite 
Clearness  in  the  Incomprehensible  Fulness, 
and  Fulness  Incomprehensible  with  Infinite 
Clearness. 

This  then  comprizes  my  first  purpose,  which 
is  in  a  two  fold  sense  general:  for  in  the  sub- 
stance, if  not  in  the  form,  it  belongs  to  all  my 
countrymen  and  fellow-christians  without  dis- 
tinction of  Class,  while  for  its  object  it  embraces 
the  whole  of  the  inspired  Scriptures  from  the 
recorded  first  day  of  Heaven  and  Earth,  ere 
the  light  was  yet  gathered  into  celestial  lamps 
or  reflected  from  their  revolving  mirrors,  to  the 


% 


66 

predicted  Sabbath  of  the  New  Creation,  when 
Heaven  and  Earth  shall  have  become  one  city 
with  neither  "sun  nor  moon  to  shine  in  it: 
for  the  glo$y  of  God  shall  lighten  it  and  the 
Lamb  be  the  light  thereof."  My  second  pur- 
pose is  after  the  same  manner  in  a  two  fold 
sense  specific  :  for  as  this  Disquisition  is  nom- 
inally addressed  to,  so  was  it  for  the  greater 
part  exclusively  intended  for,  the  perusal  of 
the  Learned  :  and  its  object  likewise  is  to 
urge  men  so  qualified  to  apply  their  powers 
and  attainments  to  an  especial  study  of  the 
Old  Testament  as  teaching  the  Elements  of 
Political  Science. 

Is  it  asked,  in  what  sense  I  use  these  words  1 
I  answer :  in  the  same  sense  as  the  terms  are 
employed  when  we  refer  to  Euclid  for  the 
Elements  of  the  Science  of  Geometry,  only 
with  one  difference  arising  from  the  diversity 
of  the  subject.  With  one  difference  only ;  but 
that  one  how  momentous  !  All  other  sciences 
are  confined  to  abstractions,  unless  when  the 
term  Science  is  used  in  an  improper  and  flat- 
tering sense — Thus  we  may  speak  without 
boasting  of  Natural  History  ;  but  we  have 
not  yet  attained  to  a  Science  of  Nature.     The 


67 

Bible  alone  contains  a  Science  of  Realities: 
and  therefore  each  Gf  it's  Elements*"  is  at  the 
same  time  a  living  Germ,  in  which  the  Pre- 
sent involves  the  Future,  and  in  the  Finite 
the  Infinite  exists  potentially.  That  hidden 
mystery  in  every,  the  minutest,  form  of  exist- 
ence, which  contemplated  under  the  relations 
of  time  presents  itself  to  the  understanding 
retrospectively,  as  an  infinite  ascent  of  Causes, 
and  prospectively  as  an  interminable  progres- 
sion of  Effects — that  which  contemplated  in 
Space  is  beheld  intuitively  as  a  law  of  action 
and  re-action,  continuous  and  extending  beyond 
all  bound — this  same  mystery  freed  from  the 
phenomena  of  Time  and  Space,  and  seen  in 
the  depth  of  real  Being,  reveals  itself  to  the 
pure  Reason  as  the  actual  immanence  of  All 
in  Each.  Are  we  struck  with  admiration  at 
beholding  tlfe  Cope  of  Heaven  imaged  in  a 
Dew-drop  ?  The  least  of  the  animalcula  to 
which  that  drop  would  be  an  Ocean  contains 
in  itself  an  infinite  problem  of  which  God 
Omni-present  is  the  only  solution.  The  slave 
of  custom  is  roused  by  the  Rare  and  the  Ac- 
cidental alone ;  but  the  axioms  of  the  Unthink- 
ing are  to  the  philosopher  the  deepest  problems 


68 

as  being  the  nearest  to  the  mysterious  Root 
and  partaking  at  once  of  its  darkness  and  its 
pregnancy. 

O  what  a  mine  of  undiscovered  treasures, 
what  a  new  world  of  Power  and  Truth  would 
the  Bible  promise  to  our  future  meditation,  if 
in  some  gracious  moment  one  solitary  text  of 
all  its  inspired  contents  should  but  dawn  upon 
us  in  the  pure  untroubled  brightness  of  an 
Idea,  that  most  glorious  birth  of  the  God-like 
within  us,  which  even  as  the  Light,  its  material 
symbol,  reflects  itself  from  a  thousand  surfaces, 
and  flies  homeward  to  its  Parent  Mind  enriched 
with  a  thousand  forms,  itself  above  form  and 
still  remaining  in  its  own  simplicity  and  identi- 
ty !  O  for  a  flash  of  that  same  Light,  in  which 
the  first  position  of  geometric  science  that 
ever  loosed  itself  from  the  generalizations  of  a 
groping  and  insecure  experience,  did  for  the 
first  time  reveal  itself  to  a  human  intellect  in 
all  its  evidence  and  all  its  fruitfulness,  Trans- 
parence without  Vacuum,  and  Plenitude  without 
Opacity !  O  that  a  single  gleam  of  our  own 
inward  experience  would  make  comprehensible 
to  us  the  rapturous  Eureka,  and  the  grateful 
Hecatomb,  of  the  philosopher  of  Samos!  or, 


69 

that  Vision  which  from  the  contemplation  of 
an  arithmetical  harmony  rose  to  the  eye  of 
Kepler,  presenting  the  planetary  world,  and 
all  their  orbits  in  the  Divine  order  of  their 
ranks  and  distances :  or  which,  in  the  falling 
of  an  Apple,  revealed  to  the  etherial  intuition 
of  our  own  Newton  the  constructive  principle 
of  the  material  Universe.  The  promises  which 
I  have  ventured  to  hold  forth  concerning  the 
hidden  treasures  of  the  Law  and  the  Prophets 
will  neither  be  condemned  as  a  paradox  or  as 
exaggeration,  by  the  mind  that  has  learnt  to 
understand  the  possibility,  that  the  reduction 
of  the  sands  of  the  Sea  to  number  should  be 
found  a  less  stupendous  problem  by  Archi- 
medes than  the  simple  conception  of  the  Par- 
menidean  Ojve.  What  however  is  achievable 
by  the  human  understanding  without  this  light 
may  be  comprised  in  the  epithet,  xwootafloi :  and 
a  melancholy  comment  on  that  phrase  would 
the  history  of  human  cabinets  and  Legislatures 
for  the  last  thirty  years  furnish !  The  excellent 
Barrow,  the  last  of  the  disciples  of  Plato  and 
Archimedes  among  our  modern  mathematicians, 
shall  give  the  description  and  state  the  value: 
and  in  his  words  I  shall  conclude. 


70 

Aliud  agere,  to  be  impertinently  busy,  doing 
that  which  conduceth  to  no  good  purpose  is  in 
some  respect  worse  than  to  do  nothing.  Of 
such  industry  we  may  understand  that  of  the 
Preacher,  "The  labor  of  the  foolish  wearieth 
every  one  of  them." 


NOTE. — The  Appendix  to  the  Statesman's  Manual  may  be 
found  in  Chauncey  Goodrich's  edition  of  Coleridge's  Aids 
to  Reflection,  published  in  one  volume,  octavo,  in  1829,  and 
edited  by  Doctor  Marsh. 


LAY    SERMON, 


ADDRESSED      TO     THE 


HIGHER     AND     MIDDLE    CLASSES, 


ON     THE       EXISTING 


stresses  antj  5itsco«tent» 


Bi  S.  T.   COLERIDGE,  Esq. 


BURLINGTON  : 

CHAUNGEY    GOODRICH 

1832. 


INTRODUCTION. 


Fellow- Countrymen  !  You  I  mean,  who  fill 
the  higher  and  middle  stations  of  society  !  The 
comforts,  perchance  the  splendors,  that  surround 
you,  designate  your  rank,  but  cannot  constitute 
your  moral  and  personal  fitness  for  it.  Be  it  enough 
for  others  to  know,  that  you  are  its  legal — but  by 
what  mark  shall  you  stand  accredited  to  your  own 
consciences,  as  its  worthy — possessors  ?  Not  by 
common  sense  or  common  honesty  ;  for  these  are 
equally  demanded  of  all.  "classes,  and  therefore 
mere  negative  qualifications  in  your  rank  of  life, 
or  characteristic  only  by  the  aggravated  ignominy 
consequent  on  their  absence.  Not  by  genius  or 
splendid  tal-ent :  for  these,  as  being  gifts  of  Nature, 
are  objects  of  moral  interest  for  those  alone,  to 
whom  they  have  been  allotted.  Nor  yet  by  emin- 
ence in  learning  ;  for  this  supposes  such  a  devo- 
tion of  time  and  thought,  as  would  in  many  cases 
be  incompatible  with  the  claims  of  active  life. 
Erudition  is,  doubtless,  an  ornament,  that  especial- 
ly becomes  a  high  station :  but  it  is  professional 
rank  only  that  renders  its  attainment  a  duty. 


74 

The  mark  in  question  must  be  so  far  common, 
that  we  may  be  entitled  to  look  for  it  in  you  from 
the  mere  circumstance  of  your  situation,  and  so 
far  distinctive,  that  it  must  be  such  as  cannot  be 
expected  generally  from  the  inferior  classes.  Now 
either  there  is  no  such  criterion  in  existence,  or 
the  Desideratum  is  to  be  found  in  an  habitual  con- 
sciousness of  the  ultimate  principles,  to  which  your 
opinions  are  traceable.  The  least,  that  can  be 
demanded  of  the  least  favored  among  you,  is  an 
earnest  endeavor  to  walk  in  the  Light  of  your  own 
knowledge ;  and  not,  as  the  mass  of  mankind,  by 
laying  hold  on  the  skirts  of  Custom.  Blind  fol- 
lowers of  a  blind  and  capricious  guide,  forced 
likewise  (though  oftener,  I  fear,  by  their  own  im- 
providence,* than  by  the  lowness   of  their  estate) 

*  A  truth,  that  should  not  however  be  said,  save  in  the 
spirit  of  charity,  and  with  the  palliating  reflection,  that  this 
very  improvidence  has  hitherto  been,  though  not  the  inevita- 
ble, yet  the  natural  result  of  Poverty  and  the  Poor  Laws. 
With  what  gratitude  I  venerate  my  country  and  its  laws, 
my  humble  publications  from  the  "Fears  in  Solitude'' 
printed  in  1798,  to  the  present  discourse  bear  witness. — Yet 
the  Poor  Laws  and  the  Revenue  ! — if  I  permitted  myself  to 
dwell  on  these  exclusively,  I  should  be  tempted  to  fancy  that 
the  domestic  seals  were  put  in  commission  and  entrusted  to 
Argus,  Briareus,  and  Cacus,  as  lords  of  the  commonalty. 
Alas!  it  is  easy  to  see  the  evil ;  but  to  imagine  a  remedy  is 
difficult  in  exact  proportion  to  the  experience  and  good  sense 
of  the  seeker.     That  excellent  man,  Mr.  Perceval,  whom  I 


75 

to  consume  Life  in  the  means  of  living,  the  multi- 
tude may  make  the  sad  confession 

Terapora  mutantur:  nos  et  mutamur  in  illis 

unabashed.  But  to  English  Protestants  in  the  en- 
joyment of  a  present  competency,  much  more  to 
such  as  are  defended  against  the  anxious  Future, 
it  must  needs  'be  a  grievous  dishonor,  (and  not  the 
less  grievous,  though  perhaps  less  striking,  from 
its  frequency)  to  change  with  the   times,  and  thus 

regard  as  the  best  and  wisest  statesman,  this  country  has  pos- 
sessed since  the  revolution  (I  judge  only  from  his  measures 
and  the  reports  of  his  speeches  in  parliament :  for  I  never  saw 
him,  that  I  know  of)  went  into  the  ministry,  with  the  design 
as  well  as  the  wish  of  abolishing  lotteries.  1  was  present  at 
a  table,  when  this  intention  was  announced  by  a  venerable 
relative  of  the  departed  statesman,  who  loved  and  honored 
the  man,  but  widely  dissented  from  him  as  a  politician.  Ex- 
cept myself,  all  present  were  partizans  of  the  opposition  ;  but 
all  avowed  their  determination  on  this  score  alone,  as  a  great 
moral  precedent,  to  support  the  new  minister. — What  was 
the  result?  Two  lotteries  in  the  first  year  instead  of  one! 
The  door  of  the  cabinet  has  a  quality  the  most  opposite  to 
the  Ivory  Gate  of  Virgil.  It  suffers  no  dreams  to  pass  through 
it.  Alas  !  as  far  as  auy  wide  scheme  of  benevolence  is  con- 
cerned, the  inscription  over  it  might  seem  to  be  the  Dantean 

Lasciate  ogni  speranza,  voi  ch'entrate ! 
We  judge  harshly  because  we  expect  irrationally.    But  on 
the  other  hand,  this  disproportion  of  the  power  to  the  wish 
will,  sooner  or  later,  end  in  that  tame  acquiescence  in  things 
as  they  are,  which  is  the  sad  symptom  of  a  moral  necrosis 


76 

to  debase  their  motives  and  maxims,  the  sacred 
house-hold  of  conscience,  into  slaves  and  creatures 
of  fashion.  Thou  therefore  art  inexcusable,  0  man  ! 
(Rom.  II.  i.)  if  thou  dost  not  give  to  thyself  a  rea- 
son for  the  faith  that  is  in  thee  :  if  thou  dost  not 
thereby  learn  the  safety  and  the  blessedness  of 
that  other  apostolic  precept  Whatsoever  ye  doy  do 
it  in  Faith.  Your  habits  of  reflection  should  at 
least  be  equal  to  your  opportunities  of  leisure  :  and 
to  that  which  is  itself  a  species  of  leisure — your 
immunity  from  bodily  labor,  from  the  voice  and 
lash  of  the  imperious  ever-recurring  This  Day  ! 
Your  attention  to  the  objects,  that  stretch  away 
below  you  in  the  living  landscape  of  good  and  evil, 
and  your  researches  into  their  existing  or  practi- 
cable bearings  on  each  other,  should  be  proportion- 
al to  the  elevation  that  extends  and  diversifies 
your  prospect.  If  you  possess  more  than  is  neces- 
sary for  your  own  wants,  more  than  your  own 
wants  ought  to  be  felt  by  you  as  your  own  inter- 
ests.    You  are  pacing  on  a  smooth  terrace,  which 

commencing.  And  commence  it  will,  if  its  causes  are  not 
counteracted  by  the  philosophy  of  history,  that  is,  by  history 
read  in  the  spirit  of  prophecy ;  if  they  are  not  overcome  by  the 
faith  which,  still  re-kindling  hope,  still  re-enlivens  charity. 
Without  the  knowledge  of  Man,  the  knowledge  of  Men  is  a 
hazardous  acquisition.  What  insight  might  not  our  states- 
men acquire  from  the  study  of  the  Bible  merely  as  history,  if 
only  they  had  been  previously  accustomed  to  study  history  in 
the  same  spirit,  as  that  in  which  good  men  read  the  Bible ! 


77 

you  owe  to  the  happy  institutions  of  your  coun- 
try,— ;a  terrace  on  the  mountain's  breast.  To  what 
purpose,  by  what  moral  right,  if  you  continue  to 
gaze  only  on  the  sod  beneath  your  feet  ?  Or  if 
converting  means  into  ends  and  with  all  your 
thoughts  and  efforts  absorbed  in  selfish  schemes 
of  climbing  cloud  ward,  you  turn  your  back  on  the 
wide  landscape,  and  stoop  the  lower,  the  higher 
you  ascend. 

The  remedial  and  prospective  advantages,  that 
may  be  rationally  anticipated  from  the  habit  of 
contemplating  particulars  in  their  universal  laws  ; 
its  tendency  at  once  to  fix  and  to  liberalize  the 
morality  of  private  life,  at  once  to  produce  and  en- 
lighten the  spirit  of  public  zeal ;  and  let  me  add, 
its  especial  utility  in  recalling  the  origin  and 
primary  purport  of  the  term,  Generosity,*  to  the 
heart  and  thoughts  of  a  populace  tampered  with 
by  sophists  and  incendiaries  of  the  revolutionary 
school ;  these  advantages  I  have  felt  it  my  duty 
and  have  made  it  my  main  object  to  press  on  your 
serious  attention  during  the  whole  period  of  my 
literary  labors  from  earliest  manhood  to  the  present 

*  A  genera:  the  qualities  either  supposed  natural  and  in- 
stinctive to  men  of  noble  race,  or  such  as  their  rank  is  calcu- 
lated to  inspire,  as  disinterestedness,  devotion  to  the  service 
of  their  friends,  clients,  &c.  frankness,  &c. 


78 

hour.  *  Whatever  may  have  been  the  specific 
theme  of  my  communications,  and  whether  they 
related  to  criticism,  politics,  or  religion,  still  Prin- 
ciples, their  subordination,  their  connection,  and 
their  application,  in  all  the  divisions  of  our  tastes, 
duties,  rules  of  conduct  and  schemes  of  belief,  have 
constituted  my  chapter  of  contents. 

It  is  an  unsafe  partition,  that  divides  opinions 
without  principle  from  unprincipled  opinions.  If 
the  latter  are  not  followed  by  correspondent  ac- 
tions, we  are  indebted  for  the  escape,  not  to  the 
agent  himself,  but  to  his  habits  of  education,  to  the 
sympathies  of  superior  rank,  to  the   necessity  of 

*In  testimony  of  the  fact  and  no  less  of  the  small  change, 
my  own  public  and  political  principles  have  undergone,  I 
might  appeal  to  the  Conciones  ad  Populum,  delivered  at 
Bristol  in  the  year  1794;  but  that,  though  a  few  copies  were 
printed,  they  can  scarcely  be  said  to  have  been  published. 
The  first  of  these  "Lay-sermons,"  (which  was  likewise  the 
firstling  of  my  authorship)  I  intend  to  include  in  the  republi- 
cation or  rather  the  rinfaciammto  of  the  Friend.  I  prefer 
the  latter  word,  because  every  part  will  be  omitted  which 
could  not  be  brought  to  conclusion  and  completion  within  the 
extent  allotted  to  the  work  (three  volumes  of  the  size  of  the 
British  Essayists  ;)  their  place  supplied  by  new  articles :  and 
the  whole  arranged  anew.  The  Friend  likewise  has  never  been 
published  in  the  ordinary  sense  of  the  term.  The  numbers 
printed  weekly  on  stamped  paper  were  sent  by  the  post  to  a 
scanty  number  of  subscribers  and  (a  sad  but  important  dis- 
tinction!) to  a  still  scantier  number  of  subscriptionists. — gow- 
vavxa  ovvs'xoujw  eg  de  xoy  IIoTv  igfujvBoig  gaii^ei. 


79 

character,  often,  perhaps,  to  the  absence  of  tempt- 
ation from  providential  circumstances  or  the  acci- 
dent of  a  gracious  Nature.  These,  indeed,  are 
truths  of  all  times  and  places ;  but  I  seemed  to  see 
especial  reason  for  insisting  on  them  in  our  own 
times.  A  long  and  attentive  observation  had  con- 
vinced me,  that  formerly  Men  were  worse  than 
their  Principles,  but  that  at  present  the  Prin- 
ciples ARE  WORSE  THAN  THE  Men. 

Few  are  sufficiently  aware  how  much  reason 
most  of  us  have,  even  as  common  moral  livers,  to 
thank  God  for  being  Englishmen.  It  would  fur- 
nish grounds  both  for  humility  towards  Providence 
and  for  increased  attachment  to  our  country,  if 
each  individual  could  but  see  and  feel,  how  large 
a  part  of  his  innocence  he  owes  to  his  birth,  breed- 
ing, and  residence  in  Great  Britain.  The  admin- 
istration of  the  laws ;  the  almost  continual  preaching 
of  moral  prudence  ;  the  number  and  respectability 
of  our  sects  ;  the  pressure  of  our  ranks  on  each 
other,  with  the  consequent  reserve  and  watchful- 
ness of  demeanor  in  the  superior  ranks,  and  the 
emulation  in  the  subordinate  ;  the  vast  depth,  ex- 
pansion and  systematic  movements  of  our  trade  ; 
and  the  consequent  inter-dependence,  the  arterial 
or  nerve-like  net-work  of  property,  which  make 
every  deviation  from  outward  integrity  a  calcula- 
ble loss  to  the  offending  individual  himself  from  its 
mere   effects,  as  obstruction  and  irregularity  ;  and 


80 

lastly,  the  naturalness  of  doing  as  others  do  : — 
these  and  the  like  influences,  peculiar,  some  in  the 
kind  and  all  in  the  degree,  to  this  privileged  island, 
are  the  buttresses,  on  which  our  foundationless 
well-doing  is  upheld,  even  as  a  house  of  cards,  the 
architecture  of  our  infancy,  in  which  each  is  sup- 
ported by  all. 

Well  then  may  we  pray,  give  us  peace  in  our 
time,  0  Lord  !  Well  for  us,  if  no  revolution,  or 
other  general  visitation,  betray  the  true  state  of 
our  national  morality  !  But  above  all,  well  will  it 
be  for  us  if  even  now  we  dare  disclose  the  secret 
to  our  own  souls  !  Well  will  it  be  for  as  many  of 
us  as  have  duly  reflected  on  the  Prophet's  assur- 
ance, that  we  must  take  root  downwards  if  we 
would  bear  fruit  upwards  ;  if  we  would  bear  fruit, 
and  continue  to  bear  fruit,  when  the  foodful  plants 
that  stand  straight,  only  because  they  g»ow  in  com- 
pany ;  or  whose  slender  surface-roots  owe  their 
whole  steadfastness  to  their  intertanglement ;  have 
been  beaten  down  by  the  continued  rains,  or  whirl- 
ed aloft  by  the  sudden  hurricane  !  Nor  have  we 
far  to  seek  for  whatever  it  is  most  important  that 
we  should  find.  The  wisdom  from  above  has  not 
ceased  for  us  !  "  The  principles  of  the  oracles  of 
God"  (Heb.  v.  12.)  are  still  uttered  from  before 
the  altar  !  Oracles,  Which  we  may  consult  with- 
out cost !  Before  an  altar,  where  no  sacrifice  is 
required,  but  of  the  vices  which  unman  us !   no 


81 

victims  demanded,  but  the  unclean  and  animal 
passions,  which  we  may  have  suffered  to  house 
within  us,  forgetful  of  our  baptismal  dedication — 
no  victim,  but  the  spiritual  sloth,  or  goat,  or  fox, 
or  hog,  which  lay  waste  the  vineyard  that  the 
Lord  had  fenced  and  planted  for  himself. 

I  have  endeavored  in  a  previous  discourse  to 
persuade  the  more  highly  gifted  and  educated  part 
of  my  friends  and  fellow-christians,  that  as  the  New 
Testament  sets  forth  the  means  and  conditions  of 
spiritual  convalescence,  with  all  the  laws  of  con- 
science relative  to  our  future  state  and  permanent 
Being ,  so  does  the  Bible  present  to  us  the  ele- 
ments of  public  prudence,  instructing  us  in  the 
true  causes,  the  surest  preventatives,  and  the  only 
cure,  of  public  evils.  The  authorities  of  Ra- 
leigh, Clarendon  and  Milton  must  at  least  ex- 
empt me  from  the  blame  of  singularity,  if  undeter- 
red by  the  contradictory  charges  of  paradoxy  from 
one  party  and  of  adherence  to  vulgar  and  old- 
fashioned  prejudices  from  the  other,  1  persist  in 
avowing  my  conviction,  that  the  inspired  poets, 
historians  and  sententiaries  of  the  Jews,  are  the 
clearest  teachers  of  political  economy  :  in  short, 
that  their  writings*  are  the  Statesman's  best 
Manual,  not  only  as  containing  the  first  principles 

*  To  which  I  should  be  tempted  with  the  late  Edmund 
Burke  to  annex  that  treasure  of  prudential  wisdom,  the  Ec- 
clesiasticus.  I  not  only  yield,  however,  to  the  authority  of 
our  Church,  but,  reverence  the  judgment  of  its  founders  in 


82 

and  ultimate  grounds  of  state-policy  whether  in 
prosperous  times  or  in  those  of  danger  and  distress, 
but  as  supplying  likewise  the  details  of  their  appli- 
cation^ and  as  being  a  full  and  spacious  repository 
of  precedents  and  facts  in  proof. 

Well  therefore  (again  and  again  I  repeat  to  you,) 
well  will  it  be  for  us  if  we  have  provided  our-' 
selves  from  this  armory  while  "  yet  the  day  of 
trouble  and  of  treading  down  and  .of  perplexity" 
appears  at  far  distance  and  only  "  in  the  valley  of 

separating  this  work  from  the  list  of  the  Canonical  Books, 
and  in  refusing  to  apply  it  to  the  establishment  of  any  doctrine, 
while  they  caused  it  to  be  "  read  for  example  of  life  and 
instruction  of  manners."  Excellent,  nay,  invaluable,  as  this 
book  is  in  the  place  assigned  to  it  by  our  Church,  that  place 
is  justified  on  the  clearest  grounds.  For  not  to  say  that  the 
compiler  himself,  candidly  cautions  us  against  the  imperfec- 
tions of  his  translation,  and  its  no  small  difference  from  the 
original  Hebrew,  as  it  was  written  by  his  grandfather,  he  so 
expresses  himself  in  his  prologue  as  to  exclude  all  claims  to 
inspiration  or  divine  authority  in  any  other  or  higher  sense 
than  every  writer  is  entitled  to  make,  who  having  qualified* 
himself  by  the  careful  study  of  the  books  of  other  men  had 
been  drawn  on  to  write  something  himself.  But  of  still  great- 
er weight,  practically,  are  the  objections  derived  from  certain 
passages  of  the  Book,  which  savour  top  plainly  of  the  fancies 
and  prejudices  of  a  jew  of  Jerusalem:  ex.  gr.  the.  j  25th  and 
26th  verses  of  chapter  L  ;  and  of  greater  still  the  objections 
drawn  from  other  passages,  as  from  chapter  41st.  which  by 
implication  and  obvious  inference  are  nearly  tantamount  to  a 
denial  of  a  future  state,  and  bear  too  great  a  resemblance  ta 
the  ethics  of  the  Greek  poets  and  orators  in  the  substitution 
of  posthumous  fame  for  a  true  resurrection,  and  a  consequent 


83 

Vision  :"  if  we  have  humbled  ourselves  and  have 
confessed  our  thin  and  unsound  state,  even  while 
"  from  the  uttermost  parts  of  the  earth-  we  were 
hearing  songs  of  praise  and  glory  to  the  upright 
nation."     (Is.  xxii.  5.  xxiv.  16.) 

But  if  indeed  the  day  of  treading  down  is  present, 
it  is  still  in  our  power  to  convert  it  into  a  time  of 
substantial  discipline  for  ourselves,  and  of  enduring 
benefit  to  the  present  generation  and  to  posterity. 
The  splendor  of  our  exploits,  during  the  late  war, 
is  less  honorable  to  us  than  the  magnanimity  of  our 
views,  and  our  generous  confidence  in  the  victory 

personal  endurance  ;  the  substitution  in  short,  of  a  nominal  for 
a  real  immortality,  and  lastly  from  the  prudential  spirit  of  the 
maxims  in  general,  in  which  prudence  is  taught  too  much  on 
its  own  grounds  instead  of  being  recommended  as  the  organ  or 
vehicle  of  a  spiritual  principle  in  its  existing  worldly  relations. 
In  short,  prudence  ceases  to  be  wisdom  when  it  is  not  to  the 
filial  fear  of  God,  and  to  the  sense  of  the  excellence  of  the 
divine  laws,  what  the  body  is  to  the  soul !  Now,  in  the  work 
of  the  son  of  Sirach,  prudence  is  both  body  and  soul. 

It  were  perhaps  to  be  wished,  that  this  work,  and  the  wis- 
dom of  Solomon  had  alone  received  the  honor  of  being 
accompaniments  to  the  inspired  writings,  and  that  these 
should,  with  a  short  precautionary  preface  and  a  few  notes 
have  been  printed  in  all  our  Bibles.  The  remaining  books 
might  without  any  loss  have  been  left  for  the  learned  or  for 
as  many  as  were  prompted  by  curiosity  to  purchase  them,  in 
a  separate  volume.  Even  of  the  Maccabees  not  above  a  third 
part  can  be  said  to  possess  any  historic  value,,  as  authentic 
accounts. 


84 

of  the  better  cause.  Accordingly,  we  have  ob- 
tained a  good  name,  so  that  the  nations  around  us 
have  displayed  a  disposition  to  follow  our  example 
and  imitate  our  institutions — too  often  I  fear  even 
in  parts  where  from  the  difference  of  our  relative 
circumstances  the  imitation  had  little  chance  of 
proving  more  fhan  mimickry.  But  it  will  be  far 
more  glorious,  and  to  our  neighbors  incomparably 
more  instructive,  if  in  distresses  to  which  all  coun- 
tries are  liable  we  bestir  ourselves  in  remedial  and 
preventive  arrangements  which  all  nations  may 
more  or  less  adbpt  ;  inasmuch  as  they  are  grounded 
on  principles  intelligible  to  all  rational  and  obli- 
gatory on  all  moral  beings  ;  inasmuch  as,  having 
been  taught  by  God's  word,  exampled  by  God's 
providence,  commanded  by  God's  law,  and  recom- 
mended by  promises  of  God's  grace,  they  alone 
can  form  the  foundations  of  a  christian  community. 
Do  we  love  our  country  ?  These  are  the  principles, 
by  which  the  true  friend  of  the  people  is  contra- 
distinguished from  the  factious  demagogue.  They 
are  at  once  the  rock  and  the  quarry.  On  these 
alone  and  with  these,  alone  is  the  solid  welfare  of 
a  people  to  be  built. .  Do  we  love  our  own  souls  ? 
These  are  the  principles,  the  neglect  of  which 
writes  hypocrite  and  suicide  on  the  brow  of  the 
professing  christian.  For  these  are  the  keystone 
of  that  arch  on  which  alone  we  can  cross  the  tor- 
rent of  life  and  death  with  safety  on  the  passage  ; 


85 

with  peace  in  the  retrospect;  and  with  hope 
shining  upon  us  from  through  the  cloud,  toward 
which  we  are  travelling.  Not,  my  christian  friends  ! 
by  all  the  lamps  of  worldly  wisdom  clustered  in 
one  blaze,  can  we  guide  our  paths  so  securely  as 
by  fixing  our  eyes  on  this  inevitable  cloud,  through 
which  all  must  pass,  which  at  every  step  becomes 
darker  and  more  threatening  to  the  children  of  this 
world,  but  to  the  children  of  faith  and  obedience 
still  thins  away  as  they  approach,  to  melt  at  length 
and  dissolve  into  the  glorious  light,  from  which  as 
so  many  gleams  and  reflections  of  the  same  falling 
on  us  during  our  mortal  pilgrimage,  we  derive  all 
principles  of  true  and  lively  knowledge,  alike  in 
science  and  in  morals,  alike  in  communities  and  in 
individuals. 

It  has  been  my  purpose  throughout  the  following 
discourse  to  guard  myself  and  my  Readers  from 
extremes  of  all  kinds  :  I  will  therefore  conclude 
this  Introduction  by  inforcing  the  maxim  in  its  re- 
lation to  our  religious  opinions,  out  of  which,  with 
or  without  our  consciousness,  all  our  other  opinions 
flow,  as  from  their  Spring-head  and  perpetual 
Feeder.  And  that  I  might  neglect  no  innocent 
mode  of  attracting  or  relieving  the  Reader's  atten- 
tion, I  have  moulded  my  reflections  into  the  fol- 
lowing 


86 
ALLEGORIC   VISION. 

A  felling  of  sadness,  a  peculiar  melancholy,  is 
wont  to  take  possession  of  me  alike  in  Spring  and 
in  Autumn.  But  in  Spring  it  is  the  melancholy  of 
Hope  :  in  Autumn  it  is  the  melancholy  of  Resig- 
nation. As  I  was  journeying  on  foot  through  the 
Appennine,  I  fell  in  with  a  pilgrim  in  whom  the 
Spring  and  the  Autumn  and  the  Melancholy  of 
bolh  seemed  to  have  combined.  In  his  discourse 
there  were  the  freshness  and  the  colors  of  April : 

Qual  ramicel  a  ramo, 
Tal  da  pensier  petisiero 
In  lui  germogliava. 

But  as  I  gazed  on  his  whole  form  and  figure,  I 
bethought  me  of  the  not  unlovely  decays,  both  of 
age  and  of  the  late  season,  in  the  stately  elm  ;  after 
the  clusters  have  been  plucked  from  its  entwining 
vines,  and  the  vines  are  as  bands  of  dried  withes 
around  its  trunk  and  branches.  Even  so  there  was 
a  memory  on  his  smooth  and  ample  forehead, 
which  blended  with  the  dedication  of  his  steady 
eyes,  that  still  looked — I  know  not,  whether  up- 
ward, or  far  onward,  or  rather  to  the  line  of  meet- 
ing where  the  sky  rests  upon  the  distance.  But 
how  may  I  express — the  breathed  tarnish,  shall  I 


87 

name  it  ? — on  the  lustre  of  the  pilgrim's  eyes  ? 
Yet  had  it  not  a  sort  of  strange  accordance  with 
their  slow  and  reluctant  movement,  whenever  he 
turned  them  to  any  object  on  the  right  hand  or  on 
the  left  ?  It  seemed,  methought,  as  if  there  lay 
upon  the  brightness  a  shadowy  presence  of  disap- 
pointments now  unfelt,  but  never  forgotten.  It 
was  at  once  the  melancholy  of  hope  and  of  resig- 
nation. 

We  had  not  long  been  fellow-travellers,  ere  a 
sudden  tempest  of  wind  and  rain  forced  us  to  seek 
protection  in  the  vaulted  door-way  of  a  lone  chap- 
elry  :  and  we  sate  face  to  face  each  on  the  stone 
bench  along-side  the  low,  wether-stained  wall,  and 
as  close  as  possible  to  the  mossy  door. 

After  a  pause  of  silence  :  Even  thus,  said  he, 
like  two  strangers  that  have  fled  to  the  same  shel- 
ter from  the  same  storm,  not  seldom  do  Despair 
and  Hope  meet  for  the  first  time  in  the  porch  of 
Death  !  All  extremes  meet,  I  answered  ;  but 
your's  was  a  strange  and  visionary  thought.  The 
better  then  doth  it  beseem  both  the  place  and  me, 
he  replied.  From  a  Visionary  wilt  thou  hear  a 
Vision  ?  Mark  that  vivid  flash  through  this  tor- 
rent of  rain  !  Fire  and  water.  Even  here  thy 
adage  holds  true,  and  its  truth  is  the  moral  of  my 
Vision.  I  entreated  him  to  proceed.  Sloping  his 
face  toward  the  arch  and  yet  averting  his  eye  from 
it,  he  seemed  to  seek  and  prepare  his  words  :   till 


88 

listening  to  the  wind  that  echoed  within  the  hol- 
low edifice,  and  to  the  rain  without, 

Which  stole  on  his  thoughts  with  its  two-fold  sound, 
The  clash  hard  by  and  the  murmur  all  round, 

he  gradually  sunk  away,  alike  from  me  and  from 
his  own  purpose,  and  amid  the  gloom  of  the  storm 
and  in  the  duskiness  of  that  place  he  sate  like  an 
emblem  on  a  rich  man's  sepulchre,  or  like  an  aged 
mourner  on  the  sodded  grave  of  an  only  one,  who 
is  watching  the  wained  moon  and  sorroweth  not. 
Starting  at  length  from  his  brief  trance  of  abstrac- 
tion, with  courtesy  and  an  atoning  smile  he  renew- 
ed his  discourse,  and  commenced  his  parable. 

During  one  of  those  short  furlows  from  the 
service  of  the  Body,  which  the  Soul  may  some- 
times obtain  even  in  this,  its  militant  state,  I  found 
myself  in  a  vast  plain,  which  I  immediately  knew 
to  be  the  Valley  of  Life.  It  possessed  an  as- 
tonishing diversity  of  soils  :  and  here  was  a  sunny 
spot,  and  there  a  dark  one,  forming  just  such  a 
mixture  of  sunshine  and  shade,  as  we  may  have 
observed  on  the  mountains'  side  in  an  April  day, 
#vhen  the  thin  broken  clouds  are  scattered  over 
heaven.  Almost  in  the  very  entrance  of  the  val- 
ley stood  a  large  and  gloomy  pile,  into  which  I 
seemed  constrained  to  enter.  Every  part  of  the 
building  was  crowded  with  tawdry  ornaments  and 
fantastic  deformity,     On  every  window  was  pour- 


89 

trayed,  in  glaring  and  inelegant  colors,  some  hor- 
rible tale,  or  preternatural  incident,  so  that  not  a 
ray  of  light  could  enter,  untinged  by  the  medium 
through  which  it  passed.  The  body  of  the  building 
was  full  of  people,  some  of  them  dancing,  in  and 
out,  in  unintelligible  figures,  with  strange  ceremo- 
nies and  antic  merriment,  while  others  seemed 
convulsed  with  horror,  or  pining  in  mad  melan- 
choly. Intermingled  with  these,  I  observed  a  num- 
ber of  men,  clothed  in  ceremonial  robes,  who 
appeared  now  to  marshal  the  various  groups,  and 
to  direct  their  movements  ;  and  now  with  menacing 
countenances,  to  drag  some  reluctant  victim  to  a 
vast  idol,  framed  of  iron  bars  intercrossed,  which 
formed  at  the  same  time  an  immense  cage,  and  the 
form  of  a  human  Colossus. 

I  stood  for  a  while  lost  in  wonder,  what  these 
things  might  mean  ;  when  lo  !  one  of  the  Directors 
came  up  to  me,  and  with  a  stern  and  reproachful 
look  bade  me  uncover  my  head  ;  for  that  the  place, 
into  which  I  had  entered,  was  the  temple  of  the 
only  true  Religion,  in  the  holier  recesses  of  which 
the  great  Goddess  personally  resided.  Himself 
too  he  bade  me  reverence,  as  the  consecrated 
Minister  of  her  Rites.  Awe-struck  by  the  name 
of  Religion,  I  bowed  before  the  Priest,  and  humbly 
and  earnestly  intreated  him  to  conduct  me  into 
her  presence.  He  assented.  Offerings  he  took 
from   me,   with  mystic  sprinklings   of  water  and 


90 

with  salt  he  purified,  and  with  strange  sufflations 
he  exorcised  me  ;  and  then  led  me  through  many 
a  dark  and  winding  alley,  the  dew-damps  of  which 
chilled  my  flesh,  and  the  hollow  echoes  under  my 
feet,  mingled  methought,  with  moanings,  affrighted 
me.  At  length  we  entered  a  large  hall  where  not 
even  a  single  lamp  glimmered.  It  was  made  half 
visible  by  the  wan  phosphoric  rays  which  pro- 
ceeded from  inscriptions  on  the  walls,  in  letters  of 
the  same  pale  and  sepulchral  light.  I  could  read 
them,  methought ;  but  though  each  one  of  the 
words  taken  separately  I  seemed  to  understand, 
yet  Avhen  I  took  them  in  sentences,  they  were  rid- 
dles and  incomprehensible.  As  I  stood  meditating 
on  these  hard  sayings,  my  guide  thus  addressed 
me — The  fallible  becomes  infallible,  and  the  in- 
fallible remains  fallible.  Read  and  believe  :  these 
are  mysteries  ! — In  the  middle  of  the  vast  hall 
the  Goddess  was  placed.  Her  features,  blended 
with  darkness,  rose  out  to  my  view,  terrible,  yet 
vacant.  No  definite  thought,  no  distinct  image 
was  afforded  me  :  all  was  uneasy  and  obscure  feel- 
ing. I  prostrated  myself  before  her,  and  then 
retired  with  my  guide,  soul-withered,  and  wonder- 
ing, and  dissatisfied. 

As  I  re-entered  the  body  of  the  temple,  I  heard 
a  deep  buz  as  of  discontent.  A  few  whose  eyes 
were  bright,  and  either  piercing  or  steady,  and 
whose    ample   foreheads,    with  the   weighty  bar, 


91 

ridge-like,  above  the  eye-brows,  bespoke  observa- 
tion following  by  meditative  thought ;  and  a  much 
larger  number  who  were  enraged  by  the  severity 
and  insolence  of  the  priests  in  exacting  their  of- 
ferings ;  had  collected  in  one  tumultuous  groupe, 
and  with  a  confused  outcry  of  "  this  is  the  Temple 
of  Superstition  !"  after  much  contumely,  and 
turmoil,  and  cruel  maltreatment  on  all  sides,  rush- 
ed out  of  the  pile  :  and  I,  methought,  joined  them. 

We  speeded  from  the  Temple  with  hasty  steps, 
and  had  now  nearly  gone  round  half  the  valley, 
when  we  were  addressed  by  a  woman,  tall  beyond 
the  stature  of  mortals,  and  with  a  something  more 
than  human  in  her  countenance  and  mien,  which 
yet  could  by  mortals  be  only  felt,  not  conveyed  by 
words  or  intelligibly  distinguished.  Deep  reflec- 
tion, animated  by  ardent  feelings,  was  displayed  in 
them  :  and  hope,  without  its  uncertainty,  and  a 
something  more  than  all  these,  which  I  understood 
not ;  but  which  yet  seemed  to  blend  all  these  into 
a  divine  unity  of  expression.  Her  garments  were 
white  and  matronly,  and  of  the  simplest  texture. 
We  enquired  her  name.  My  name  she  replied,  is 
Religion. 

The  more  numerous  part  of  our  company,  af- 
frighted by  the  very  sound,  and  sore  from  recent 
impostures  or  sorceries,  hurried  onwards  and  ex- 
amined no  farther.  A  few  of  us,  struck  by  the 
manifest  opposition  of  her  form   and  manners  to 


92 

those  of  the  living  Idol,  whom  we  had  so  recently 
abjured,  agreed  to  follow  her,  though  with  cau- 
tious circumspection.  She  led  us  to  an  eminence 
in  the  midst  of  the  valley,  from  the  top  of  which 
we  could  command  the  whole  plain,  and  observe 
the  relation  of  the  different  parts,  of  each  to  the 
other,  and  of  each  to  the  whole,  and  of  all  to  each. 
She  then  gave  us  an  optic  glass  which  assisted 
without  contradicting  our  natural  vision,  and  ena- 
bled us  to  see  far  beyond  the  limits  of  the  Valley 
of  life  :  though  our  eye  even  thus  assisted  permit- 
ted us  only  to  behold  a  light  and  a  glory,  but  what 
we  could  not  descry,  save  only  that  it  was,  and 
that  it  was  most  glorious. 

And  now  with  the  rapid  transition  of  a  dream, 
I  had  overtaken  and  rejoined  the  more  numerous 
party,  who  had  abruptly  left  us,  indignant  at  the 
very  name  of  religion.  They  journied  on,  goad- 
ing each  other  with  remembrances  of  past  oppres- 
sions, and  never  looking  back,  till  in  the  eagerness 
to  recede  from  the  Temple  of  Superstition  they 
had  rounded  the  whole  circle  of  the,  valley.  And 
lo  !  there  faced  us  the  mouth  of  a  vast  cavern,  at 
the  base  of  a  lofty  and  almost  perpendicular  rock, 
the  interior  side  of  which,  unknown  to  them,  and 
unsuspected,  formed  the  extreme  and  backward 
wall  of  the  Temple.  An  impatient  crowd,  we 
entered  the  vast  and  dusky  cave,  which  was  the 
only  perforation  of  the  precipice     At  the  mouth 


93 

of  the  cave  sate  two  figures  ;  the  first,  by  her 
dress  and  gestures,  I  knew  to  be  Sensuality  ; 
the  second  form,  from  the  fierceness  of  his  de- 
meanor, and  the  brutal  scornfulness  of  his  looks, 
declared  himself  to  be  the  Monster  Blasphemy. 
He  uttered  big  words,  and  yet  ever  and  anon  I 
observed  that  he  turned  pale  at  his  own  courage. 
We  entered.  Some  remained  in  the  opening  of 
the  cave,  with  the  one  or  the  other  of  its  guardi- 
ans. The  rest,  and  I  among  them,  pressed  on,  till 
we  reached  an  ample  chamber,  that  seemed  the 
centre  of  the  rock.  The  climate  of  the  place  was 
unnaturally  cold. 

In  the  furthest  distance  of  the  chamber  sate  an 
old  dim-eyed  man,  poring  with  a  microscope  over 
the  Torso  of  a  statue,  which  had  neither  basis, 
nor  feet,  nor  head  ;  but  on  its  breast  was  carved, 
Nature  !  To  this  he  continually  applied  his  glass, 
and  seemed  enraptured  with  the  various  inequali- 
ties which  it  rendered  visible  on  the  seemingly 
polished  surface  of  the  marble. — Yet  evermore 
was  this  delight  and  triumph  followed  by  expres- 
sions of  hatred,  and  vehement  railing  against  a 
Being,  who  yet,  he  assured  us,  had  no  existence. 
This  mystery  suddenly  recalled  to  me  what  I  had 
read  in  the  Holiest  Recess  of  the  temple  of  Su- 
perstition. The  old  man  spoke  in  diverse  tongues, 
and  continued  to  utter  other  and  most  strange 
mysteries.     Among  the  rest  he   talked  much  and 


94 

vehemently  concerning  an  infinite  series  of  causes 
and  effects,  which  he  explained  to  be — a  string  of 
blind  men,  the  last  of  whom  caught  hold  of  the 
skirt  of  the  one  before  him,  he  of  the  next,  and 
so  on  till  they  were  all  out  of  sight :  and  that  they 
all  walked  infallibly  straight,  without  making  one 
false  step,  though  all  were  alike  blind.  Methought 
I  borrowed  courage  from  surprize,  and  asked 
him — Who  then  is  at  the  head  to  guide  them  ? 
He  looked  at  me  with  ineffable  contempt,  not  un- 
mixed with  an  angry  suspicion,  and  then  replied, 
"  No  one."  The  string  of  blind  men  went  on  for 
ever  without  any  beginning :  for  although  one 
blind  man  could  not  move  without  stumbling,  yet 
infinite  blindness  supplied  the  want  of  sight.  I 
burst  into  laughter,  which  instantly  turned  to  ter- 
ror— for  as  he  started  forward  in  rage,  I  caught  a 
glance  of  him  from  behind  ;  and  lo  !  I  beheld  a 
monster  bi-form  and  Janus-headed,  in  the  hinder 
face  and  shape  of  which  I  instantly  recognized  the 
dread  countenance  of  Superstition — and  in  the 
terror  I  awoke. 


LAY    SERMON- 
isaiah,  xxxii.  20. 

Blessed  are  ye  that  sow  beside  all  waters. 

Ojv  all  occasions  the  Beginning  should  look 
toward  the  End;  and  most  of  all  when  we 
offer  counsel  concerning  circumstances  of  great 
distress,  and  of  still  greater  alarm.  But  such 
is  our  business  at  present,  and  the  common 
duty  of  all  whose  competence  justifies  the  at- 
tempt. And  therefore,  my  Christian  Friends 
and  Fellow  Englishmen,  have  I  in  a  day  of 
trouble  and  of  treading  down  and  of  perplexity, 
taken  my  Beginning  from  this  animating  assur- 
ance of  an  inspired  Messenger  to  the  Devisers 
of  liberal  things,  (xxxii.  8.)  who  confident  in 
hope  are  fearless  in  charity.  For  to  enforce 
the  Precept  involved  in  this  gladsome  annun- 
ciation of  the  Evangelical  Herald,  to  awaken 
the  lively  Feeling  which  it  breathes,  and  to 
justify  the  line  of  conduct  which  it  encourages, 


96 

are  the  End  to  which  my  present  efforts  are 
directed — the  ultimate  object  of  the  present 
Address,  to  which  all  the  other  points,  therein 
discussed,  are  but  introductory  and  prepara- 
tive. 

'  Blessed  are  ye  that  sow  beside  all  waters.' 
It  is  the  assurance  of  a  Prophet,  and  therefore 
Surety  itself  to  all  who  profess  to  receive  him 
as  such.  It  is  a  Command  in  the  form  of  a 
Promise,  which  at  once,  instructs  us  in  our  duty 
and  forecloses  every  possible  objection  to  its 
performance.  It  is  at  once  our  Guide  and  our 
Pioneer ! — a  Breeze  from  Heaven,  which  at  one 
and  the  same  time  determines  our  path,  impels 
us  along  it,  and  removes  before-hand,  each 
overhanging  cloud  that  might  have  conspired 
with  our  own  dimness  to  bewilder  or  to  dis- 
hearten us.  Whatever  our  own  Despondence 
may  whisper,  or  the  reputed  Masters  of  Political 
Economy  may  have  seemed  to  demonstrate, 
neither  by  the  fears  and  scruples  of  the  one, 
or  by  the  confident  affirmations  of  the  other, 
dare .  we  be  deterred.  They  must  both  be 
false  if  the  Prophet  is  true.  We  will  still  in 
the  power  of  that  faith  which  can  hope  even 
against  hope  continue  to  sow  beside  all  waters : 


97 

for  there  is  a  Blessing  attached  to  it  by  God 
himself,  to  whose  eye  all  consequences  are 
present,  on  whose  will  all  consequences  de- 
pend. 

But  I  had  also  an  additional  motive  for  the 
selection  of  this  verse.  Easy  to  be  remember- 
ed from  its  briefness,  likely  to  be  remembered 
from  its  beauty,  and  with  not  a  single  word  in 
it  which  the  malignant  ingenuity  of  Faction 
could  pervert  to  the  excitement  of  any  dark 
or  turbulent  feeling,  I  chose  it  both  as  the  Text 
and  Title  of  this  Discourse,  that  it  might  be 
brought  under  the  eye  of  many  thousands  who 
will  know  no  more  of  the  Discourse  itself  than 
what  they  read  in  the  advertisements  of  it  in 
our  public  papers. 

In  point  of  fact  it  was  another  passage  of 
Scripture,  the  words  of  another  Prophet,  that 
originally  occasioned  this  Address,  by  one  of 
those  accidental  circumstances,  that  so  often 
determine  the  current  of  our  Thoughts.  From 
a  company  among  whom  the  distresses  of  the 
times  and  the  disappointments  of  the  public 
expectations  had  been  agitated  with  more 
warmth  than  wisdom,  I  had  retired  to  solitude 
and  silent  meditation.  A  Bible  chanced  to  lie 
9 


98 

open  on  the  table,  my  eyes  were  cast  idly  on 
the  page  for  a  few  seconds,  till  gradually  as  a 
mist  clears  away,  the  following  words  became 
visible,  and  at  once  fixed  my  attention.  *  We 
looked  for  peace,  but  no  good  came  ;  for  a  time 
of  health,  and  behold  trouble.' — I  turned  to  the 
beginning  of  the  chapter :  it  was  the  eighth 
of  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  and  having  read  it  to 
the  end,  I  repeated  aloud  the  verses  which  had 
become  connected  in  my  memory  by  their 
pertinency  to  the  conversation,  to  which  I  had 
been  so  lately  attending:  namely  the  11th, 
15th,  20th,  and  22d. 

They  have  healed  the  hurt  of  the  daughter  of 
my  people  slightly,  saying  Peace,  Peace,  when 
there  is  no  Peace.  We  looked  for  Peace,  hut 
no  good  came :  for  a  time  of  health,  and  behold, 
trouble!  The  harvest  is  past,  the  summer  is 
ended  :  and  we  are  not  saved.  Is  there  no  balm 
in  Gilead  ?  Is  there  no  Physician  ?  Why  then 
is  not  the  health  of  the  daughter  of  my  people 
recovered  ? 

These  impassioned  remonstrances,  these 
heart-probing  interrogatories,  of  the  lamenting 
Prophet,  do  indeed  anticipate  a  full,  and  alas  ! 
a  too  faithful  statement  of  the  case,  to  the 


99 

public  consideration  of  which  we  have  all  of 
late  been  so  often  and  so  urgently  invited,  and 
the  inward  thought  of  which  our  very  coun- 
tenances betray,  as  by  a  communion  of  alarm. 
In  the  bold  painting  of  Scripture  language, 
all  faces  gather  blackness,  the  Many  at  the 
supposed  magnitude  of  the  national  embarrss- 
ment,  the  Wise  at  the  more  certain  and  far 
more  alarming  evil  of  its  moral  accompani- 
ments. And  they  not  only  contain  the  state 
of  the  case,  but  suggest  the  most  natural 
scheme  and  order  of  treating  it.  I  avail  my- 
self, therefore,  of  the  passage  as  a  part  of  my 
text,  with  the  less  scruple  because  it  will  be 
found  to  supply  of  itself  the  requisite  link  of 
connection.  The  case  itself,  the  plain  fact 
admitted  by  men  of  all  parties  among  us,  is, 
as  I  have  just  observed,  and  as  you  will  your- 
selves have  felt  at  the  first  perusal  of  the 
words,  described  by  anticipation  in  the  inter- 
mediate verses;  yet  with  such  historic  precision, 
so  plain  and  so  specifically  as  to  render  all 
comment  needless,  all  application  superfluous. 
Peace  has  come  without  the  advantages  ex- 
pected from  Peace,  and  on  the  contrary,  with 
many  of  the  severest  inconveniences  usually 


100 

attributable  to  War.  *  We  looked  for  peace, 
but  no  good  came :  for  a  time  of  health,  and 
behold  trouble.  The  harvest  is  past,  the  sum- 
mer is  ended,  and  we  are  not  saved.'  The 
inference  therefore  contained  in  the  preceding 
verse  is  unavoidable.  Where  war  has  pro- 
duced no  repentance,  and  the  cessation  of  war 
has  brought  neither  concord  or  tranquillity,  we 
may  safely  cry  aloud  with  the  Prophet :  They 
have  healed  the  hurt  of  the  daughter  of  my 
people  slightly,  saying  peace,  peace,  when 
there  is  no  peace.'  The  whole  remaining  sub- 
ject therefore  may  be  comprized  in  the  three 
questions  implied  in  the  last  of  the  verses, 
recited  to  you  ;  in  three  questions,  and  in  the 
answers  to  the  same.  First,  who  are  they 
who  have  hitherto  prescribed  for  the  case,  and 
are  still  tampering  with  it  ?  W^hat  are  their 
qualifications  ?  What  has  been  their  conduct? 
Second,  What  is  the  true  seat  and  source  of 
the  complaint, — the  ultimate  causes  as  well  as 
the  immediate  occasions  ?  And  lastly,  What 
are  the  appropriate  medicines?  Who  and 
where  are  the  true  physicians  ? 

And  first  then  of  those  who  have  been  ever 
loud   and   foremost  in  their  pretensions  to  a 


101 

knowledge  both  of  the  disease  and  the  remedy. 
In  a  preceding  part  of  the  same  chapter  from 
which  I  extracted  the  line  prefixed,  the  Pro- 
phet Isaiah  enumerates  the  conditions  of  a 
nation's  recovery  from  a  state  of  depression 
and  peril,  and  among  these  one  condition  which 
he  describes  in  words  that  may  be  without  any 
forced  or  over-refined  interpretations  unfolded 
into  an  answer  to  the  present  question.  '  A 
vile  person,'  he  tells  us,  'must  no  more  be 
called  liberal,  nor  the  churl  be  said  to  be  boun- 
tiful. For  the  vile  person  shall  speak  villainy, 
and  his  heart  will  work  iniquity  to  practice 
hypocrisy  and  to  utter  error  against  the  Lord  ; 
to  make  empty  the  soul  of  the  needy,  and  he 
will  cause  the  drink  of  the  thirsty  to  fail.  The 
instruments  also  of  the  churl  are  evil ;  he  de- 
viseth  wicked  devices  to  destroy  the  poor  with 
lying  words,  even  when  the  needy  speaketh 
aright.  But  the  Liberal  deviseth  liber- 
al  THINGS,  AND  BY    LIBERAL    THINGS    SHALL 

he  stand.'  (Isaiah,  xxxii.  5,  6,  7,  8.) 

Such  are  the  political  empirics  mischievous 
in  proportion  to  their  effrontery,  and  ignorant 
in  proportion  to  their  presumption,  the  detec- 
tion and  exposure  of  whose  true  characters 
9* 


102 

the  inspired  statesman  and  patriot  represents 
as  indispensable  to  the  re-establishment  of  the 
general  welfare,  while  his  own  portrait  of  these 
impostors  whom  in  a  former  chapter  (ix.  15. 
16.)  he  calls  the  tail  of  the  Nation,  and  in  the 
following  verse,  Demagogues  that  cause  the 
people  to  err,  affords  to  the  intelligent  believer 
of  all  ages  and  countries  the  means  of  detect- 
ing them,  and  of  undeceiving  all  whose  own 
malignant  passions  have  not  rendered  them 
blind  and  deaf  and  brutish.  For  these  noisy 
and  calumnious  zealots,  whom  (with  an  espe- 
cial reference  indeed  to  the  factious  leaders  of 
the  populace  who  under  this  name  exercised 
a  tumultuary  despotism  in  Jerusalem,  at  once 
a  sign  and  a  cause  of  its  approaching  downfall) 
St.  John  beheld  in  the  Apocalyptic  vision  as  a 
compound  of  Locust  and  Scorpion,  are  not  of 
one  place  or  of  one  season.  They  are  the 
perennials  of  history:  and  though  they  may 
disappear  for  a  time,  they  exist  always  in  the 
egg,  and  need  only  a  distempered  atmosphere 
and  an  accidental  ferment  to  start  up  into  life 
and  activity. 

It  is  worth  our  while  therefore,  or  rather  it 
is  our  duty,  to  examine  with  a  more  attentive 


103 

eye  this  representative  portrait  drawn  for  us 
by  an  infallible  master,  and  to  distinguish  its 
component  parts,  each  by  itself,  so  that  we 
may  combine  without  confusing  them  in  our 
memory ;  till  they  blend  at  length  into  one 
physiognomic  expression,  which  whenever  the 
counterpart  is  obtruded  on  our  notice  in  the 
sphere  of  our  own  experience,  may  be  at  once 
recognized,  and  enable  us  to  convince  our- 
selves of  the  identity  by  a  comparison  of  feature 
with  feature. 

The  passage  commences  with  a  fact,  which 
to  the  inexperienced  might  well  seem  strange 
and  improbable ;  but  which  being  a  truth  nev- 
ertheless of  our  own  knowledge,  is  the  more 
striking  and  characteristic.  Worthless  persons 
of  little  or  no  estimation  for  rank,  learning,  or 
integrity,  not  seldom  profligates,  with  whom 
debauchery  has  outwrestled  rapacity,  easy  be- 
cause unprincipled  and  generous  because  dis- 
honest, are  suddenly  cried  up  as  men  of 
enlarged  views  and  liberal  sentiments,  our 
only  genuine  patriots  and  philanthropists  :  and 
churls,  that  is,  men  of  sullen  tempers  and  surly 
demeanor;  men  tyrannical  in  their  families, 
oppressive  and  troublesome  to  their  dependents 


104 

and  neighbors,  and  hard  in  their  private  deal- 
ings between  man  and  man ;  men  who  clench 
with  one  hand  what  they  have  grasped  with 
the  other ;  these  are  extolled  as  public  bene- 
factors, the  friends,  guardians,  and  advocates 
of  the  poor !  Here  and  there  indeed  we  may 
notice  an  individual  of  birth  and  fortune 

(For  great  estates  enlarge  not  narrow  minds) 

who  has  been  duped  into  the  ranks  of  incendia- 
ries and  mob -sycophants  by  an  insane  restless- 
ness, and  the  wretched  ambition  of  figuring  as 
the  triton  of  the  minows.  Or  we  may  find 
perhaps  a  professional  man  of  shewy  accom- 
plishments but  of  a  vulgar '  taste,  and  shallow 
acquirements,  who  in  part  from  vanity,  and  in 
part  as  a  means  of  introduction  to  practice, 
will  seek  notoriety  by  an  eloquence  well  cal- 
culated to  set  the  multitude  agape,  and  excite 
gratis  to  overt-acts  of  sedition  or  treason  which 
he  may  afterwards  be  fee'd  to  defend !  These 
however  are  but  exceptions  to  the  general  rule. 
Such  as  the  Prophet  has  described,  such  is  the 
sort  of  men ;  and  in  point  of  historic  fact  it  has 
been  from  men  of  this  sort,  that  profaneness 

- 


105 

is  gone  forth  into  all  the  land.     (Jeremiah, 
xxxiii.  15.) 

In  harmony  with  the  general  character  of 
these  false  prophets,  are  the  particular  qualities 
assigned  to  them.  First,  a  passion  for  vauge 
and  violent  invective,  an  habitual  and  inveter- 
ate predilection  for  the  language  of  hate,  and 
rage  and  contumely,  an  ungoverned  appetite 
for  abuse  and  defamation !     The  vile  will 

TALK  VILLAINY. 

But  the  fetid  flower  will  ripen  into  the  poi- 
sonous berry,  and  the  fruits  of  the  hand  follow 
the  blossoms  of  the  slanderous  lips.  His 
heart  will  work  iniquity.  That  is,  he 
will  plan  evil,  and  do  his  utmost  to  carry  his 
plans  into  execution.  The  guilt  exists  already  ; 
and  there  wants  nothing  but  power  and  oppor- 
tunity to  condense  it  into  crime  and  overt-act. 
He  that  hateth  his  brother  is  a  murderer  !  says 
St.  John ;  and  of  many  and  various  sorts  are 
the  brother-haters,  in  whom  this  truth  may  be 
exemplified.  Most  appropriately  for  our  pur- 
pose, Isaiah  has  selected  the  fratricide  of  sedi- 
tion, and  with  the  eagle  eye  and  practised 
touch  of  an  intuitive  demonstrator  he  unfolds 
the  composition  of  the  character,  part  by  part, 


106 

in  the  secret  history  of  the  agent's  wishes,  de- 
signs and  attempts,  of  his  ways,  his  means,  and 
his  ends.  The  agent  himself,  the  incendiary 
and  his  kindling  combustibles,  had  been  already 
sketched  by  Solomon,  with  the  rapid  yet  faith- 
ful outline  of  a  master  in  the  art :  '  The  begin- 
ning of  the  words  of  his  mouth  is  foolishness 
and  the  end  of  his  talk  mischievous  madness,' 
Ecclesiastes,  x.  13.  If  in  the  spirit  of  Prophe- 
cy,* the  wise  Ruler  had  been  present  to  our 
own  times,  and  their  procedures ;  if  while  he 

*  Solomon  has  himself  informed  us,  that  beyond  wealth  and 
conquest,  and  as  of  far  greater  importance  to  him,  in  his  ar- 
duous office  of  King  and  Magistrate,  he  had  sought  through 
knowledge  of  wisdom  to  lay  hold  on  folly :  that  is,  by  the  study 
of  Man,  to  arrive  at  a  grounded  knowledge  of  Men,  and 
through  a  previous  insight  into  the  nature  and  conditions  of 
Good  to  acquire  by  inference  a  thorough  comprehension  of  the 
Evil  that  arises  from  its  deficiency  or  perversion.  And  truly 
in  all  points  of  prudence,  public  and  private,  we  may  accom- 
modate to  the  Royal  Preacher  his  own  words  (Ecclesiastes, 
ii.  12.)  What  can  the  man  say  that  cometh  after  the  King  ?  Even 
that  which  hath  been  said  already. 

In  a  preceding  page  we  have  interpreted  the  fifth  trumpet 
in  the  Apocalypse,  of  the  Zelota?  during  the  .siege  of  Jerusa- 
lem ;  to  the  Romans  therefore,  and  their  Oriental  Allies,  we 
must  refer  the  sounding  of  the  sixth  Angel,  in  this  sublime 
and  magnificent  drama  acted  in  Heaven,  before  the  whole 
Host  of  Heaven,  the  personal  Friend  of  the  Incarnate  God 
attending  as  the  Representative  of  Human  Nature,  and  in  her 


107 

sojourned  in  the  valley  of  vision  he  had  actual- 
ly heard  the  very  harangues  of  our  reigning 
demagogues  to  the  convened  populace ;  could 
he  have  more  faithfully  characterized  either 
the  speakers  or  the  speeches'?  Whether  in 
spoken  or  in  printed  Addresses,  whether  in 
periodical  Journals  or  in  yet  cheaper  imple- 
ments of  irritation,  the  ends  are  the  same,  the 
process  is  the  same,  and  the  same  is  their  gen- 
eral line  of  conduct.  On  all  occasions,  but 
most  of  all  and  with  a  more  blustering  malig- 

behalf  looking  and  listening  with  fearful  awe  to  the  prophetic 
symbols  of  her  destiny!  But  had  I  dared  imitate  the  major 
part  of  the  Commencators,  and  followed  the  fatuous  fires  of 
Fancy,  that  "  shrewd  sprite"  ever  busiest  when  in  the  service 
of  pi-e-conceived  partialities  and  antipathies,  I  might  have  suf- 
fered my  judgment  to  be  seduced  by  the  wonderful  (apparent) 
aptness  of  the  symbols,  (many  of  them  at  least)  and  extended 
the  application  of  the  first  eleven  verses  to  the  whole  chapter, 
the  former  as  treating  of  the  Demagogues  exclusively,  the  lat- 
ter as  including  their  infatuated  followers  likewise.  For  what 
other  image?,  concorporated  according  to  the  rules  of  Hiero- 
glyphic Syntax,  could  form  more  appropriate  and  significant 
exponents  of  a  seditious  and  riotous  multitude,  with  the  mob- 
orators,  their  Heads  or  Leaders,  than  the  thousands  of  pack- 
horses  {jumenta  sarcinaria)  with  heads  resembling  those  of  a 
roaring  wild  beast,  with  smoke,  fire  and  brimstone  (that  is, 
empty,  unintelligible,?  incendiary,  calumnious,  and  offensively 
foul  language)  issuing  from  their  mouths  ?  '  For  their  power 
is  in  their  Mouths  and  in  their  Tails ;  and  they  have  Heads, 
and  by  means  of  them  they  do  hurt.' 


108 

nity,  whenever  any  public  distress  inclines  the 
lower  classes  to  turbulence,  and  renders  them 
more  apt  to  be  alienated  from  the  government 
of  their  country — -in  all  places  and  at  every 
opportunity  pleading  to  the  Poor  and  Ignorant, 
no  where  and  at  no  time  are  they  found  actu- 
ally pleading  for  them.  Nor  is  this  the  worst. 
They  even  plead  against  them.  Yes  !  Syco- 
phants to  the  crowd,  enemies  of  the  individuals, 
and  well-wishers  only  to  the  continuance  of 

The  authenticity  of  this  canonical  Book  rests  on  the  firm- 
est grounds,  both  of  outward  testimony  and  internal  evidence. 
But  it  has  been  most  strangely  abused  and  perverted  from  the 
Millenarians  of  the  primitive  Church  to  the  religious  Politi- 
cians of  our  own  times.  My  own  conception  of  the  Book  is, 
that  it  narrates  in  the  broad  and  inclusive  form  of  the  ancient 
Prophets  (i.  e.  in  the  prophetic  power  of  faith  and  moral  in- 
sight irradiated  by  inspiration)  the  successive  struggles  and 
final  triumph  of  Christianity  over  the  Paganism  and  Judaism 
of  the  then  Roman  Empire,  typified  in  the  Fall  of  Rome,  the 
destruction  of  the  Old  and  the  (symbolical)  descent  of  the 
New  Jerusalem.  Nor  do  I  think  its  interpretation  even  in 
detail  attended  with  any  insuperable  difficulties. 

It  was  once  my  intention  to  have  translated  the  Apocalypse, 
into  verse,  as  a  Poem,  holding  a  mid  place  between  the  Epic 
Narrative  and  the  Choral  Drama :  and  to  have  annexed  a 
Commentary  in  Prose.  An  intention  long  and  fondly  cherish- 
ed, but  during  many  years  deferred  from  an  unfeigned  sense 
of  my  deficiency ;  and  now  there  remains  only  the  hope  and 
the  wish,  or  rather  a  feeling  between  both ! 


109 

their  miseries,  they  plead  against  the  poor  and 
afflicted,  under  the  weak  and  wicked  pretence, 
that  we  are  to  do  nothing  of  what  we  can,  be- 
cause we  cannot  do  all,  that  we  would  wish. 
Or  if  this  sophistry  of  sloth  (sophisma  pigri) 
should  fail  to  check  the  bounty  of  the  rich, 
there  is  still  the  sophistry  of  slander  in  reserve 
to  chill  the  gratitude  of  the  poor.  If  they  can- 
not dissuade  the  liberal  from  devising  liberal 
things,  they  will  at  least  blacken  the  motives 
of  his  beneficence.  If  they  cannot  close  the 
hand  of  the  giver,  they  will  at  least  embitter 
the  gift  in  the  mouth  of  the  receivers.  Is  it 
not  as  if  they  had  said  within  their  hearts  ;  the 
sacrifice  of  charity  has  been  offered  indeed  in 
despite  of  us ;  but  with  bitter  herbs  shall  it  be 
eaten!  (Exod.  xii.  8.)  Imagined  wrongs  shall 
make  it  distasteful.  We  will  infuse  vindictive 
and  discontented  fancies  into  minds,  already 
irritable  and  suspicious  from  distress :  till  the 
fever  of  the  heart  shall  coat  the  tongue  with 
gall  and  spread  wormwood  on  the  palate  1 

However  angrily  our  demagogues  may  dis- 
claim all  intentions  of  this  kind,  such  has  been 
their  procedure,  and  it  is   susceptible  of  no 

other  interpretation.     We  all  know,  that  the 
10 


110 

shares  must  be  scanty,  where  the  dividend 
bears  no  proportion  to  the  number  of  the  claim- 
ants. Yet  He,  who  satisfied  the  multitude  in 
the  wilderness  with  a  few  loaves  and  fishes,  is 
still  present  to  his  church.  Small  as  the  por- 
tions are,  if  they  are  both  given  and  taken  in 
the  spirit  of  his  commands,  a  Blessing  will  go 
with  each ;  and  the  handful  of  meal  shall  not 
fail,  until  the  day  when  the  Lord  bringeth  back 
plenty  on  the  land.  But  no  Blessing  can  enter 
where  Envy  and  Hatred  are  already  in  posses- 
sion ;  and  small  good  will  the  poor  man  have 
of  the  food  prepared  for  him  by  his  more  favor- 
ed Brother,  if  he  have  been  previously  taught 
to  regard  it  as  a  mess  of  pottage  given  to  defraud 
him  of  his  Birth -right. 

If  then  to  promise  medicine  and  to  adminis- 
ter poison ;  if  to  flatter  in  order  to  deprave ; 
if  to  affect  love  to  all  and  show  pity  to  none  ; 
if  to  exaggerate  and  misderive  the  distress  of 
the  laboring  classes  in  order  to  make  them  tur- 
bulent, and  to  discourage  every  plan  for  their 
relief  in  order  to  keep  them  so  ;  if  to  skulk  from 
private  infamy  in  the  mask  of  public  spirit,  and 
make  the  flaming  patriot  privilege  the  game- 
ster, swindler  or  adulterer ;  if  to  seek*  amnesty  for 


Ill 

a  continued  violation  of  the  laws  of  God  by  an 
equal  pertinacity  in  outraging  the  laws  of  the 
land ;  if  these  characterize  the  hypocrite,  we 
need  not  look  far  back  or  far  round  for  faces, 
wherein  to  recognize  the  third  striking  feature 
of  this  prophetic  portrait !  When  therefore  the 
verifying  facts  press  upon  us  in  real  life  ;  when 
we  hear  persons,  the  tyranny  of  whose  will  is 
the  only  law  in  their  families,  denouncing  all 
law  as  tyranny  in  public — persons,  whose  hatred 
of  power  in  others  is  in  exact  proportion  to  their 
love  of  it  for  themselves  ;  when  we  behold  men 
of  sunk  and  irretrievable  characters,  to  whom 
no  man  would  entrust  his  wife,  his  sister,  or  his 
purse,  have  the  effrontery  to  propose  that  we 
should  entrust  to  them  our  religion  and  our 
country ;  when  we  meet  with  Patriots,  who  aim 
at  an  enlargement  of  the  rights  and  liberties  of 
the  people  by  inflaming  the  populace  to  acts  of 
madness  that  necessitate  fetters — pretended 
heralds  of  freedom  and  actual  pioneers  of  mili- 
tary despotism ;  we  will  call  to  mind  the 
words  of  the  prophet  Isaiah,  and  say  to  our- 
selves ;  this  is  no  new  thing  under  the  Sun ! 
We  have  heard  it  with  our  own  ears,  and  it 
was  declared  to  our  fathers,  and  in  the  old  time 


112 

before  them,  that  one  of  the  main  characteris- 
tics of  demagogues  in  all  ages  is,  to  practice 

HYPOCRISY. 

Such,  I  assert,  has  been  the  general  line  of 
conduct  pursued  by  the  political  Empirics  of 
the  day ;  and  your  own  recent  experience  will 
attest  the  truth  of  the  assertion.  It  was  affirm- 
ed likewise  at  the  same  time,  that  as  the  con- 
duct, such  was  the  process :  and  I  will  seek 
no  other  support  of  this  charge,  I  need  no  bet- 
ter test  both  of  the  men  and  their  works,  than 
the  plain  question :  is  there  one  good  feeling, 
to  which  they  do — is  there  a  single  bad  pas- 
sion, to  which  they  do  not  appeal  ?  If  they 
are  the  enemies  of  liberty  in  general,  inasmuch 
as  they  tend  to  make  it  appear  incompatible 
with  public  quiet  and  personal  safety,  still  more 
emphatically  are  they  the  enemies  of  the  lib- 
erty of  the  press  in  particular;  and  therein  of 
all  the  truths  human  and  divine  which  a  free 
press  is  the  most  efficient  and  only  commensu- 
rate means  of  protecting,  extending  and  per- 
petuating. The  strongest,  indeed  the  only 
plausible,  arguments  against  the  education  of 
the  lower  classes,  are  derived  from  the  writings 
of  these  incendiaries ;  and  if  for  ouf  neglect  of 


113 

the  light  that  hath  been  vouchsafed  to  us  beyond 
measure,  the  land  should  be  visited  with  a 
spiritual  dearth,  it  will  have  been  in  no  small 
degree  occasioned  by  the  erroneous  and  wick- 
ed principles  which  it  is  the  trade  of  these  men 
to  propagate.  Well  therefore  has  the  Prophet 
made  it  the  fourth  mark  of  these  misleaders 
of  the  multitude,  not  alone  to  utter  error,  but 

TO  UTTER  ERROR  AGAINST  THE  LORD,  TO 
MAKE  EMPTY  THE  SOUL  OF  THE  HUNGRY  ! 

Alas !  it  is  a  hard  and  mournful  thing,  that  the 
Press  should  be  constrained  to  call  out  for  the 
harsh  curb  of  the  law  against  the  Press !  for 
how  shall  the  Law  predistinguish  the  ominous 
screech  owl  from  the  sacred  notes  of  Augury, 
from  the  auspicious  and  friendly  birds  of  Warn- 
ing 1  And  yet  will  we  avoid  this  seeming  in- 
justice, we  throw  down  all  fence  and  bulwark 
of  public  decency  and  public  opinion.  Already 
has  political  calumny  joined  hands  with  private 
slander,  and  every  principle,  every  feeling, 
that  binds  the  citizen  to  his  country,  the  spirit 
to  its  Creator,  is  in  danger  of  being  undermi- 
ned.— Not  by  reasoning,  for  from  that  there  is 
no  danger;  but — by  the  mere  habit  of  hearing 
them  reviled  and  scoffed   at,  with  impunity^ 


10 


* 


114 

Were  we  to  contemplate  the  evils  of  a  rank 
and  unweeded  Press  only  in  its  effects  on  the 
manners  of  a  people,  and  on  the  general  tone 
of  thought  and  conversation,  the  greater  love 
we  bore  to  literature,  and  to  all  the  means  and 
instruments  of  human  improvement,  the  more 
anxiously  should  we  wish  for  some  Ithuriel 
spear  that  might  remove  from  the  ear  of  the 
ignorant  and  half-learned,  and  expose  in  their 
own  fiendish  shape,  those  reptiles,  inspir- 
ing venom  and  forging  illusions  as  they  list, 

thence  raise, 


At  least  distemper'd  discontented  thoughts, 
Vain  hopes,  vain  aims,  inordinate  desires. 

Paradise  Lost. 

I  feel,  my  friends !  that  even  the  strong  and 
painful  interest  which,  the  peculiar  state  of 
the  times,  and  almost  the  occurrences  of  the 
hour  create,  can  scarcely  counterbalance  the 
wearisome  aversion  inspired  by  the  deformity 
and  palpableness  of  the  subject  itself.  As  the 
plan  originates  in  the  malignant  restlessness  of 
desperate  ambition  or  desperate  circumstances, 
so  are  its  means  and  engines  a  drag-net  of 
Fraud  and  delusion.     The  instruments  al- 


115 


SO  OF  THE  CHURL  ARE  EVIL,  HE  DEVISETH 
WICKED    DEVICES   WITH    LYING    WORDS.       He 

employs  a  compound  poison,  of  which  the  fol- 
lowing are  the  main  ingredients,  the  proportions 
varying  as  the  case  requires  or  the  wit  of  the 
poisoner  suggests.  It  will  be  enough  rapidly 
to  name  and  number  the  components,  as  in  a 
catalogue.  1.  Bold,  warm,  and  earnest  asser- 
tions, it  matters  not  whether  supported  by 
facts  or  no,  nay,  though  they  should  involve 
absurdities,  and  demonstrable  impossibilities : 
ex.  gr.  that  the  amount  of  the  sinecure  places 
given  by  the  executive  power  would  suffice  to 
remove  all  distress  from  the  land.  He  is  a 
bungler  in  the  trade,  and  has  been  an  indocile 
scholar  of  his  dark  master,  the  father  of  lies^ 
who  cannot  make  an  assertion  pass  for  a  fact 
with  an  ignorant  multitude.  The  natural  gen- 
erosity of  the  human  heart  which  makes  it  an 
effort  to  doubt ;  the  confidence  which  apparent 
courage  inspires ;  and  the  contagion  of  animal 
enthusiasm ;  will  ensure  the  belief.  Even  in 
large  assemblies  of  men  highly  educated  it  is 
too  often  sufficient  to  place  impressive  images 
in  juxta-position :  and  the  constitutive  forms  of 
the  mind  itself  aided  by  the  power  of  habit  will 


116 

supply  the  rest.  For  we  all  think  by  causal 
connections.  2.  Startling  particular  Facts, 
which,  dissevered  from  their  context,  enable 
a  man  to  convey  falsehood  while  he  says  truth. 
E.  Arguments  built  on  passing  events  and  de- 
riving an  undue  importance  from  the  feelings 
of  the  moment.  The  mere  appeal,  however, 
to  the  auditors  whether  the  arguments  are  not 
such  that  none  but  an  idiot  or  an  hireling  could 
resist,  is  an  effective  substitute  for  any  argu- 
ment at  all.  For  mobs  have  no  memories. 
They  are  in  nearly  the  same  state  as  that  of 
an  individual  when  he  makes  (what  is  termed) 
a  Bull.  The  passions,  like  a  fused  metal,  fill 
up  the  wide  interstices  of  thought,  and  supply 
the  defective  links :  and  thus  incompatible  as- 
sertions are  harmonized  by  the  sensation^  with- 
out the  sense,  of  connection.  4.  The  display 
of  the  defects  without  the  accompanying  ad- 
vantages, or  vice  versa.  5.  Concealment  of 
the  general  and  ultimate  result  behind  the 
scenery  of  local,  and  particular  consequences. 
6.  Statement  of  positions  that  are  true  only 
under  particular  conditions,  to  men  whose  ig- 
norance or  fury  make  them  forget  that  these 
conditions  are  not  present,   or  lead  them  to 


117 

take  for  granted  that  they  are.  7.  Chains  of 
Questions,  especially  of  such  questions  as  the 
persons  best  authorized  to  propose  are  ever 
the  slowest  in  proposing ;  and  objections  intel- 
ligible of  themselves,  the  answers  to  which 
require  the  comprehension  of  a  system.  8. 
Vague  and  common-place  Satire,  stale  as  the 
wine  in  which  flies  were  drowned  last  summer, 
seasoned  by  the  sly  tale  and  important  anec- 
dote of  but  yesterday,  that  came  within  the 
speaker's  own  knowledge!  9.  Transitions 
from  the  audacious  charge,  not  seldom  of  as 
signal  impudence  "  as  any  thing  was  ever  cart- 
ed for,"  to  the  lie  pregnant  and  interpretative : 
the  former  to  prove  the  orator's  courage,  and 
that  he  is  neither  to  be  bought  or  frightened ; 
the  latter  to  flatter  the  sagacity  of  the  audience. 

SrfKoe  eViv  a'woSsv 


'Ev  iravoupyi^  <rs  xai  Spatfsj  xai  Jco/3aX»xs'ufjia(7'iv. 

10,  Jerks  of  style,  from  the  lunatic  trope, 

'p^fjiad'   iWo/3a(Jwva,   <ffoAXa£  ts   akivSrj&pag   Iirwv,    tO    the 

buffoonery  and   "red-lattice  phrases"  of  the 

Canaglia,  2xup  (fvtfxsSuv  /3o'p/3opov  ts  tfoXuv  xai  xaxias  xcu 

tfuxopavrias ;  the  one  in  ostentation  of  superior 
rank  and  acquirements  (for  where  envy  does 


118 

not  interfere,  man  loves  to  look  up ;)  the  other 
in  pledge  of  heartiness  and  good  fellowship. 
11.  Lastly,  and  throughout  all,  to  leave  a  gene- 
ral impression  of  something  striking,  something 
that  is  to  come  of  it,  and  to  rely  on  the  indo- 
lence of  mens'  understandings  and  the  activity 
of  their  passions  for  their  resting  in  this  state, 
as  the  brood-warmth  fittest  to  hatch  whatever 
serpents'  egg  opportunity  may  enable  the  De- 
ceiver to  place  under  it.  Let  but  mysterious 
expressions*  be  aided  by  significant  looks  and 
tones,  and  you  may  cajole  an  hot  and  ignorant 
audience  to  believe  any  thing  by  saying  nothing, 
and  finally  to  act  on  the  lie  which  they  them- 
selves have  been  drawn  in  to  make.  This  is  the 
Pharmacopoeia  of  political  empirics,  here  and 
everywhere,  now  and  at  all  times !  These  are 
the  drugs  administered,  and  the  tricks  played 

*Vide  North's  Examen,  p.  20 ;  and  The  Knights  of  Aristo- 
phanes. A  version  of  this  comedy,  abridged  and  modernized, 
would  be  a  most  seasonable  present  to  the  Public.  The 
words  quoted  above  from  this  Play  and  the  frogs,  may  be  ren- 
dered freely  in  the  order  in  which  they  occur :  thus, 

1.  Thence  he  is  illustrious,  as  a  man  of  all  waters,  a  bold 
fellow,  and  one  who  knows  how  to  tickle  the  populace. 

2.  Phrases  on  horse-back,  curvetting  and  careering  words. 

3.  Scattering  filth  and  dirt,  malice  and  sycophantic  tales. 


119 

off  by  the  Mountebanks  and  Zanies  of  Patriot- 
ism ;  drugs  that  will  continue  to  poison  as  long 
as  irreligion  secures  a  predisposition  to  their 
influence ;  and  artifices,  that  like  stratagems  in 
war,  are  never  the  less  successful  for  having 
succeeded  a  hundred  times  before.  "They 
bend  their  tongues  as  a  bow  ;  they  shoot  out  de- 
ceits as  arrows :  they  are  prophets  of  the  deceit 
of  their  own  hearts:  they  cause  the  people  to  err 
by  their  dreams  and  their  lightness :  they  malm 
the  people  vain,  they  feed  them  with  wormwood, 
they  give  them  the  water  of  gall  for  drink  ;  and 
the  people  love  to  have  it  so.  And  what  is  the 
end  thereof?  (Jerem.    passim.) 

The  Prophet  answers  for  me  in  the  conclu- 
ding words  of  the  description — To  destroy 
the  Poor  even  when  the  needy  speak- 
eth  aright — that  is,  to  impel  them  to  acts 
that  must  end  in  their  ruin  by  inflammatory 
falsehoods  and  by  working  on  their  passions  till 
they  lead  them  to  reject  the  prior  convictions 
of  their  own  sober  and  unsophisticated  under- 
standings. As  in  all  the  preceding  features  so 
in  this,  with  which  the  prophetic  portrait  is 
completed,  our  own  experience  supplies  both 
proof  and  example.     The  ultimate  causes  of 


120 

the  present  distress  and  stagnation  are  in  the 
Writer's  opinion  complex  and  deeply  seated ; 
but  the  immediate  occasion  is  too  obvious  to 
be  over-looked  but  by  eyes  at  once  red  and 
dim  through  the  intoxication  of  factious  preju- 
dice, that  maddening  spirit  which  pre-eminently 
deserves  the  title  of  vinum  daemonum  applied 
by  an  ancient  Father  of  the  Church  to  a  far 
more  innocent  phrenzy.  It  is  demonstrable 
that  taxes,  the  product  of  which  is  circulated 
in  the  Country  from  which  they  are  raised,  can 
never  injure  a  Country  directly  by  the  mere 
amount ;  but  either  from  the  time  or  circum- 
stances under  which  they  are  raised,  or  from 
the  injudicious  mode  in  which  they  are  levied, 
or  from  the  improper  objects  to  which  they 
are  applied.  The  Sun  may  draw  up  the  moist- 
ure from  the  river,  the  morass,  and  the  ocean, 
to  be  given  back  in  genial  showers  to  the  gar- 
den, the  pasture  and  the  cornfield  ;  but  it  may 
likewise  force  upward  the  moisture  from  the 
fields  of  industry  to  drop  it  on  the  stagnant 
pool,  the  saturated  swamp,  or  the  unprofitable 
sandwaste.  The  corruptions  of  a  system  can 
be  duly  appreciated  by  those  only  who  have 
contemplated  the  system  in  that  ideal  state  of 


121 

perfection  exhibited  by  the  reason:  the  nearest 
possible  approximation  to  which  under  existing 
circumstances  it  is  the  business  of  the  pruden- 
tial understanding  to  realize.  Those  on  the 
other  hand,  who  commence  the  examination  of 
a  system  by  identifying  it  with  its  abuses  or 
imperfections,  degrade  their  understanding  into 
the  pander  of  their  passions,  and  are  sure  to 
prescribe  remedies  more  dangerous  than  the 
disease.  Alas !  there  are  so  many  real  evils, 
so  many  just  causes  of  complaint  in  the  consti- 
tutions and  administration  of  all  governments, 
our  own  not  excepted,  that  it  becomes  the 
imperious  duty  of  the  true  patriot  to  prevent, 
as  much  as  in  him  lies,  the  feelings  and  efforts 
of  his  fellow  country-men  from  losing  them- 
selves on  a  wrong  scent. 

If  then  we  are  to  master  the  Ideal  of  a  bene- 
ficent and  judicious  system  of  Finance  as  the 
preliminary  to  all  profitable  insight  into  the 
defects  of  any  particular  system  in  actual  exist- 
ence, we  could  not  perhaps  find  an  apter 
illustration  than  the  gardens  of  southern  Europe 
would  supply.  The  tanks  or  reservoirs  would 
represent  the  capital  of  a  nation :  while  the 
hundred  rills  hourly  varying  their  channels 
11 


122 

and  directions,  under  the  gardener's  spade, 
would  give  a  pleasing  image  of  the  dispersion 
of  that  capital  through  the  whole  population 
by  the  joint  effect  of  taxation  and  trade.  For 
taxation  itself  is  a  part  of  commerce,  and  the 
Government  may  be  fairly  considered  as  a 
great  manufacturing -house,  carrying  on  in  dif- 
ferent places,  by  means  of  its  partners  and 
overseers,  the  trades  of  the  ship-builder,  the 
clothier,  the  iron-founder,  &,c.  &c.  As  long 
as  a  balance  is  preserved  between  the  receipts 
and  the  returns  of  Government  in  their  amount, 
quickness,  and  degree  of  dispersion ;  as  long 
as  the  due  proportion  obtains  in  the  sums  le- 
vied to  the  mass  in  productive  circulation,  so 
long  does  the  wealth  and  circumstantial  pros- 
perity of  the  nation,  (its  wealth,  I  say  not  its 
real  welfare ;  its  outward  prosperity,  but  not 
necessarily  its  happiness)  remain  unaffected, 
or  rather  they  will  appear  to  increase  in  conse- 
quence of  the  additional  stimulus  given  to  the 
circulation  itself  by  the  productive  action  of  all 
large  capitals,  and  through  the  check  which 
taxation,  in  its  own  nature,  gives  to  the  indo- 
lence of  the  wealthy  in  its  continual  transfer  of 
property  to  the  industrious  and  enterprizing. 


123 

If  different  periods  be  taken,  and  if  the  com- 
parative weight  of  the  taxes  at  each  be  calcu- 
lated, as  it  ought  to  be,  not  by  the  sum  levied 
on  each  individual,  but  by  the  sum  left  in  his 
possession,  the  settlement  of  the  account  will 
be  in  favor  of  the  national  wealth,  to  the  amount 
of  all  the  additional  productive  labor  sustained 
or  excited  by  the  taxes  during  the  intervals 
between  their  efflux  and  their  re-absorption. 

But  on  the  other  hand,  in  a  direct  ratio  to 
this  increase  will  be  the  distress  produced  by 
the  disturbance  of  this  balance,  by  the  loss  of 
this  proportion ;  and  the  operation  of  the  dis- 
tress will  be  at  least  equal  to  the  total  amount 
of  the  difference  between  the  taxes  still  levied, 
and  the  quantum  of  aid  withdrawn  from  indi- 
viduals by  the  abandonment  of  others,  and  of 
that  which  the  taxes,  that  still  remain,  have 
ceased  to  give  by  the  altered  mode  of  their 
re-dispersion.  But  to  this  we  must  add  the 
number  of  persons  raised  and  reared  in  conse- 
quence of  the  demand  created  by  the  prece- 
ding state  of  things,  and  now  discharged  from 
their  occupations:  whether  the  latter  belong 
exclusively  to  the  Executive  Power,  as  that  of 
soldiers,  &c.  or  from  those  in  which  the  labor- 


124 

ers  for  the  nation  in  general  are  already  suffi- 
ciently numerous.  Both  these  classes  are 
thrown  back  on  the  Public,  and  sent  to  a  table 
where  every  seat  is  pre-occupied.  The  em- 
ployment lessens  as  the  number  of  men  to  be 
employed  is  increased ;  and  not  merely  in  the- 
same,  but  from  additional  causes  and  from  the 
indirect  consequences  of  those  already  stated, 
in  a  far  greater  ratio.  For  it  may  easily  hap- 
pen, that  the  very  same  change,  which  had 
produced  this  depression  at  home,  may  from 
equivalent  causes  have  embarrassed  the  coun- 
tries in  commercial  connection  with  us.  At 
one  and  the  same  time  the  great  customer  at 
home  wants  less,  and  our  customers  abroad  are 
able  to  buy  less.  The  conjoint  action  of  these 
circumstances  will  furnish,  for  a  mind  capable 
of  combining  them,  a  sufficient  solution  of  the 
melancholy  fact.  They  cannot  but  occasion 
much  distress,  much  obstruction,  and  these 
again  in  their  re -action  are  sure  to  be  more 
than  doubled  by  the  still  greater  and  universal 
alarm,  and  by  the  consequent  check  of  confi- 
dence and  enterprize,  which  they  never  fail  to 
produce. 

Now  it  is  a  notorious  fact,  that  these  causes 


125 

did.  all  exist  to  a  very  extraordinary  degree, 
and  that  they  all  worked  with  united  strength, 
in  the  late  sudden  transition  from  War  to 
Peace.  It  was  one  among  the  many  anoma- 
lies of  the  late  War,  that  it  acted,  After  a  few 
years,  as  a  universal  stimulant.  We  almost 
monopolized  the  commerce  of  the  world.  The 
high  wages  of  our  artisans  and  the  high  prices 
of  agricultural  produce  intercirculated.  Leases 
of  no  unusual  length  not  seldom  enabled  the 
provident  and  thrifty  farmer  to  purchase  the 
estate  he  had  rented.  Every  where  might  be 
seen  roads,  rail-ways,  docks,  canals,  made, 
making,  and  projected ;  villages  swelling  into 
towns,  while  the  metropolis  surrounded  itself, 
and  became  (as  it  were)  set  with  new  cities. 
Finally,  in  spite  of  all  the  waste  and  havoc  of 
a  twenty  years'  war,  the  population  of  the  em- 
pire was  increased  by  more  than  two  millions ! 
The  efforts  and  war- expenditure  of  the  nation, 
and  the  yearly  revenue,  were  augmented  in 
the  same  proportion  :  and  to  all  this  we  must 
add  a  fact  of  the  utmost  importance  in  the 
present  question,  that  the  war  did  not,  as  was 
usually  the  case  in  former  wars,  die  away  into 

a  long  expected  peace  by  gradual  exhaustion 
11* 


126 

and  weariness  on  both  sides,  but  plunged  to 
its  conclusion  by  a  concentration,  we  might  al- 
most say,  by  a  spasm  of  energy,  and  conse- 
quently by  an  anticipation  of  our  resources. 
We  conquered  by  compelling  reversionary  pow- 
er into  alliance  with  our  existing  and  natural 
strength.  The  first  intoxication  of  triumph 
having  passed  over,  this  our  "  agony  of  glory," 
was  succeeded,  of  course,  by  a  general  stiffness 
and  relaxation.  The  antagonist  passions  came 
into  play  ;  financial  solicitude  was  blended  with 
constitutional  and  political  jealousies,  and  both, 
alas !  were  exacerbated  by  personal  impru- 
dences, the  chief  injury  of  which  consisted  in 
their  own  tendency  to  disgust  and  alienate  the 
public  feeling.  And  with  all  this,  the  financial 
errors  and  prejudices  even  of  the  more  educa- 
ted classes,  in  short,  the  general  want  or 
imperfection  of  clear  views  and  a  scientific  in- 
sight into  the  true  effects  and  influences  of 
Taxation,  and  the  mode  of  its  operation,  be- 
came now  a  real  misfortune,  and  opened  an 
additional  source  of  temporary  embarrassment. 
Retrenchment  could  no  longer  proceed  by 
cautious  and  calculated  steps ;  but  was  com- 
pelled to  hurry  forward,  like  one  who  crossing 


127 

the  sands  at  too  late  an  hour  finds  himself 
threatened  by  the  inrush  of  the  tide.  Never- 
theless, it  was  a  truth  susceptible  of  little  less 
than  mathematical  demonstration,  that  the 
more,  and  the  more  suddenly,  the  Revenue 
was  diminished  by  the  abandonment  of  the 
war-taxes,  the  greater  would  be  the  disturb- 
ance of  the  Balance  :*  so  that  the  agricultural- 
ist, the  manufacturer,  or  the  tradesman,  (all  in 
short  but  annuitants  and  fixed  stipendiaries) 
who  during  the  war  having  paid  as  Five  had 

*  The  disturbance  of  this  balance  may  be  illustrated  thus  : — 
Suppose  a  great  Capitalist  to  have  founded,  in  a  large  marked- 
town,  a  factory  that  gradually  increasing  employed  at  length 
from  five  to  six  hundred  workmen  ;  and  that  he  had  likewise 
a  second  factory  at  a  distance  from  the  former  (in  the  Isle  of 
Man,  for  instance)  employing  half  that  number,  all  of  the  latter 
having  been  drafted  from  and  still  belonging  to  the  first  Parish. 
After  some  years  we  may  further  suppose,  that  a  large  pro- 
portion of  the  housekeepers  and  tradespeople  might  have  a 
running  account  with  the  Capitalist,  many  with  him,  as  being 
their  landlord,  and  still  more  for  their  stock.  The  workmen 
would  in  like  manner  be  for  the  greatest  part  on  the  books  of 
the  tradesfolks.  As  long  as  this  state  of  things  continued,  all 
would  go  on  well — nay,  the  town  would  be  more  prosperous 
with  every  increase  of  the  factory.  The  balance  is  preser- 
ved. The  circulations  counterpoise  each  other,  or  rather  they 
are  neutralized  by  influence.  But  some  sudden  event  leads 
or  compels  the  Capitalist  to  put  down  both  factories  at  once 


128 

Fifteen  left  behind,  would  shortly  have  less 
than  Ten  after  having  paid  but  Two  and  a 
Half. 

But  there  is  yet  another  circumstance,  which 
we  dare  not  pass  by  unnoticed.  In  the  best 
of  times — or  what  the  world  calls  such — the 
spirit  of  commerce  will  occasion  great  fluctua- 
tions, some  falling  while  others  rise,  and  there- 
fore in  all  times  there  will  be  a  large  sum  of 

and  with  little  or  no  warning ;  and  to  call  in  all  the  moneys 
owing  to  him,  and  which  by  law  had  the  preference  to  all 
other  debts. — What  would  be  the  consequence  ?  The  work- 
men are  no  longer  employed,  and  cannot  at  once  pay  up  their 
arrears  to  the  tradesmen  ;  and  though  the  Capitalist  should 
furnish  the  latter  with  goods  at  half  price,  and  make  the  same 
abatement  in  their  rent,  these  deductions  would  afford  little 
present  relief:  while  in  the  meantime  the  discharged  workmen 
from  the  distant  factory  would  fall  back  on  the  Parish,  and 
increase  the  general  distress.  The  balance  is  disturbed, — 
Put  the  Country  at  large  for  the  parishioners,  and  the  Gov- 
ernment in  all  departments  of  expenditure  for  the  Capitalist 
and  his  factories :  and  nearly  such  is  the  situation  in  which  we 
are  placed  by  the  transition  from  the  late  War  to  the  present 
Peace.  But  the  difference  is  this.  The  Town  may  never  re- 
cover its  temporary  prosperity,  and  the  Capitalist  may  spend 
his  remaining  fortune  in  another  country ;  but  a  nation,  of 
which  the  Government  is  an  organic  part  with  perfect  inter- 
dependence of  interests,  can  never  remain  in  a  state  of  depres- 
sion thus  produced,  but  by  its  own  fault :  that  is,  from  moral 
causes. 


129 

individual  distress.  Trades  likewise  have  their 
seasons,  and  at  all  times  there  is  a  very 
considerable  number  of  artificers  who  are  not 
employed  on  the  average  more  than  seven  or 
eight  months  in  the  year :  and  the  distress  from 
this  cause  is  great  or  small  in  proportion  to  the 
greater  or  less  degree  of  dissipation  and  im- 
providence prevailing  among  them.  But  be- 
sides this,  that  artificial  life  and  vigor  of  Trade 
and  Agriculture,  which  was  produced  or  occa- 
sioned by  the  direct  or  indirect  influences  of 
the  late  War,  proved  by  no  means  innoxioifs 
in  its  effects.  Habit  and  the  familiarity  with 
outward  advantages,  which  takes  off  their  daz- 
zle ;  sense  of  character;  and  above  all,  the 
counterpoise  of  intellectual  pursuits  and  re- 
sources ;  are  all  necessary  preventives  and 
antidotes  to  the  dangerous  properties  of  wealth 
and  power  with  the  great  majority  of  mankind. 
It  is  a  painful  subject :  and  I  leave  to  your  own 
experience  and  recollection  the  assemblage  of 
folly,  presumption,  and  extravagance,  that  fol- 
lowed in  the  procession  of  our  late  unprece- 
dented prosperity;  the  blind  practices  and 
blending  passions  of  speculation  in  the  com- 
mercial world,  with  the  shoal  of  ostentatious 


130 

fooleries  and  sensual  vices  which  the  sudden 
influx  of  wealth  let  in  on  our  farmers  and  yeo- 
manry. Now  though  the  whole  mass  of  ca- 
lamity consequent  on  these  aberrations  from 
prudence  should  in  all  fairness  be  attributed 
to  the  sufferer's  own  conduct;  yet  when  there 
supervenes  some  one  common  cause  or  oc- 
casion of  distress  which  pressing  hard  on  many 
furnishes  a  pretext  to  all,  this  too  will  pass 
muster  among  its  actual  effects,  and  assume 
the  semblance  and  dignity  of  national  ca- 
lamity. Each  unfortunate  individual  shares 
during  the  hard  times  in  the  immunities  of  a 
privileged  order,  as  the  most  tottering  and 
ruinous  houses  equally  with  those  in  best  re- 
pair are  included  in  the  same  brief  after  an* 
extensive  fire.  The  change  of  the  moon  will 
not  produce  a  change  of  weather,  except  in 
places  where  the  atmosphere  has  from  local 
and  particular  causes  been  predisposed  to  its 
influence.  But  the  former  is  one,  placed  aloft 
and  conspicuous  to  all  men;  the  latter  are 
many  and  intricate,  and  known  to  few.  Of 
course  it  is  the  moon  that  must  bear  the  entire 
blame  of  wet  summers  and  scanty  crops.  All 
these,  however,  whether  they  are  distresses 


131 

common  to  all  times  alike,  or  though  occasion- 
ed by  the  general  revolution  and  stagnation, 
yet  really  cause$  by  personal  improvidence  Or 
misconduct,  combine  with  its  peculiar  and  ine- 
vitable effects  in  making  the  cup  overflow. 
The  latter  class  especially,  as  being  in  such 
cases  always  the  most  clamorous  sufferers, 
increase  the  evil  by  swelling  the  alarm. 

The  principal  part  of  the  preceding  expli- 
cation, the  main  causes  of  the  present  exigen- 
cies are  so  obvious,  and  iayj*j  so  open  to  the 
common  sense  of  mankind,  that  the  laboring 
classes  saw  the  connection  of  the  change  in 
the  times  with  the  suddenness  of  the  peace, 
as  clearly  as  their  superiors,  and  being  less 
heated  with  speculation,  were  in  the  first  in- 
stance less  surprized  at  the  results.  To  a 
public  event  of  universal  concern  there  will 
often  be  more  attributed  than  belongs  to  it ; 
but  never  in  the  natural  course  of  human 
feelings  will  there  be  less.  That  the  depres- 
sion began  with  the  Peace  would  have  been 
of  itself  a  sufficient  proof  with  the  Many,  that 
it  arose  from  the  Peace.  But  this  opinion 
suited  ill  with  the  purposes  of  sedition.  The 
truth,  that  could  not  be  precluded,  must  be 


132 

removed;  and  "when  the  needy  speaketh 
aright"  the  more  urgent  occasion  is  there  for 
the  "  wicked  device"  and  the »"  lying  words.'* 
Where  distress  is  felt,  tales  of  wrong  and  op- 
pression are  readily  believed,  to  the  sufferer's 
own  disquiet.  Rage  and  Revenge  make  the 
cheek  pale  and  the  hand  tremble,  worse  than 
even  want  itself :  and  the  cup  of  sorrow  over- 
flows by  being  held  unsteadily.  On  the  other 
hand  nothing  calms  the  mind  in  the  hour  of 
bitterness  so  efficaciously  as  the  conviction  that 
it  was  not  within  the  means  of  those  above  us, 
or  around  us,  to  have  prevented  it.  An  influ- 
ence, mightier  than  fascination,  dwells  in  the 
stern  eye  of  necessity,  when  it  is  fixed  steadily 
on  a  man  :  for  together  with  the  power  of  resist- 
ance it  takes  away  its  agitations  likewise. 
This  is  one  mercy  that  always  accompanies  the 
visitations  of  the  Almighty  when  they  are  re- 
ceived as  such.  If  therefore  the  sufferings  of 
the  lower  classes  are  to  supply  air  and»fuel  to 
their  passions,  and  are  to  be  perverted  into  in- 
struments of  mischief,  they  must  be  attributed 
to  causes  that  can  be  represented  as  removea- 
ble ;  either  to  individuals  who  had  been  previ- 
ously rendered  unpopular,  or  to  whole  classes 


133 

of  men,  according  as  the  immediate  object  of 
their  seducers  may  require.  What,  though 
nothing  should  be  more  remote  from  the  true 
cause?  What  though  the  invidious  charge 
should  be  not  only  without  proof,  but  in  the 
face  of  strong  proof  to  the  contrary  1  What 
though  the  pretended  remedy  should  have  no 
possible  end  but  that  of  exasperating  the  dis- 
ease ?  All  will  be  of  little  or  no  avail,  if  these 
truths  have  not  been  administered  beforehand. 
When  the  wrath  is  gone  forth  the  plague  is 
already  begun :  (Numbers,  xvi.  46.)  Wrath  is 
cruel,  and  where  is  there  a  deafness  like  that 
of  an  outrageous  multitude  ?  For  as  the  mat- 
ter of  the  fire  is,  so  it  burneth.  Let  the  dema- 
gogue but  succeed  in  maddening  the  crowd, 
he  may  bid  defiance  to  demonstration,  and 
direct  the  madness  against  whom  it  pleaseth 
him.  Ji  slanderous  tongue  has  disquieted  many, 
and  driven  them  from  nation  to  nation  ;  strong 
cities  hath  it  pulled  down  and  overthrown  the 
houses  of  great  men.  (Ecclesiasticus,  xxviii. 
14.) 

We  see  in  every  promiscuous  public  meeting 
the  effect  produced  by  the  bold  assertion  that 

the  present  hardships  of  all  classes  are  owing 
12 


134 

to  the  number  and  amount  of  Pensions  and 
Sine-cures.  Yet  from  the  unprecedented 
zeal  and  activity  in  the  education*  of  the  poor, 
of  the  thousands  that  are  inflamed  by,  and 
therefore  give  credit  to,  these  statements,  there 
are  few  without  a  child  at  home,  who  could 

*  With  all  due  humility  we  contended  that  the  war  in  ques- 
tion had  likewise  its  golden  side.  The  anomalous  occasions 
and  stupendous  events  of  the  contest  had  roused  us,  like  the 
Mast  of  a  trumpet  from  the  clouds ;  and  as  many  as  were 
capable  of  thinking  were  roused  to  thought.  It  had  forced 
on  the  higher  and  middle  classes — say  rather  on  the  people  at 
large,  as  distinguished  from  the  mere  populace — the  home 
truth,  that  national  honesty  and  individual  safety,  private  mor- 
als and  public  security,  mutually  grounded  each  other,  that 
they  were  twined  at  the  very  root,  and  could  not  grow  or 
thrive  but  in  intertwine :  and  we  of  Great  Britain  had  acquir- 
ed this  instruction  without  the  stupifying  influences  of  terror 
or  actual  calamity.  Yet  that  it  had  operated  practically,  and 
in  a  scale  proportional  to  the  magnitude  of  the  occasion,  the 
late  and  present  condition  of  manners  and  intellect  among 
the  young  men  at  Oxford  and  Cambridge,  the  manly  sobriety 
of  demeanor,  the  submission  to  the  routine  of  study  in  almost 
all,  and  the  zeal  in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge  and  academic 
distinction  in  a  large  and  increasing  number,  afford  a  cheering 
testimony  to  such  as  were  familiar  with  the  state  of  the  two 
Universities  forty,  or  even  thirty  years  ago,  with  the  moral 
contrast  which  they  presented,  at  the  close  of  the  last,  and 
during  the  former  half  of  the  present  reign  ;  while  a  proof  of 
still  greater  power,  and  open  to  the  observation  of  all  men,  is 
supplied  by  the  predominant  anxiety  concerning  the  education 
and  principles  of  their  children  in  all  the  respectable  classes 


135 

prove  their  impossibility  by  the  first  and  sim- 
plest rules  of  arithmetic;  there  is  not  one 
perhaps,  who  taken  by  himself  and  in  a  cooler 
mood,  would  stand  out  against  the  simple 
question :  whether  it  was  not  folly  to  suppose 
that  the  lowness  of  his  wages,  or  his  want  of 
employment  could  be  occasioned  by  the  cir- 

of  the  community,  and  the  unexampled  sale,  in  consequence, 
of  the  very  numerous  large  and  small  volumes  composed  or 
compiled  for  the  use  of  parents.  Nor  here  did  the  salutary 
influence  stop.  We  had  been  compelled  to  know  and  feel 
that  the  times  in  which  we  had  to  act  or  suffer  were  the 
saturnalia  of  revolution ;  and  fearful  evidence  had  been  given 
us  at  the  cost  of  our  unfortunate  neighbours,  that  a  vicious  and 
ignorant  population  was  a  magazine  of  combustibles  left  root- 
less, while  madmen  and  incendiaries  were  letting  off  their 
new  invented  blue  lights  and  fire-rockets  in  every  direction. 
The  wish  sprang  up  and  spread  throughout  England  that  every 
Englishman  should  be  able  to  read  his  Bible  and  have  a  Bible 
ef  his  own  to  read.  The  general  wish  organized  itself  into 
act  and  plan  :  a  discoyery,  the  living  educt  of  one  great  man's 
genius  and  benevolence,  rendered  the  execution  practicable 
and  even  easy  ;  and  the  god-like  idea  began  and  is  proceeding 
to  realize  itself  with  a  rapidity  yet  stedfastness  which  nothing 
could  make  possible  or  credible  but  such  a  conviction  effected 
by  an  experience  so  strange  and  awful,  and  acting  on  that 
volunteer  spirit,  that  instinct  of  fervid  yet  orderly  co-operation, 
which  most  of  all  our  honourable  characteristics  distinguishes, 
secures,  enriches,  strengthens  and  elevates  the  people  of  Grent 
Britain.  [From  an  Essay  by  the  Author,  published  in  the  Couri- 
er, July,  1816.] 


136 

cumstances,  that  a  sum  (the  whole  of  which, 
as  far  as  it  is  raised  by  taxation,  cannot  take  a 
yearly  penny  from  him)  was  dispersed  and  re- 
turned into  the  general  circulation  by  Annui- 
tants of  the  Treasury  instead  of  Annuitants  of 
the  Bank,  by  John  instead  of  Peter :  however 
blameable  the  regulation  might  be  in  other  re- 
spects ?  What  then  ?  the  hypothesis  allows  of 
a  continual  reference  to  persons,  and  to  all  the 
uneasy  and  malignant  passions  which  personali- 
ties are  of  all  means  the  best  fitted  to  awaken. 
The  grief  itself,  however  grinding  it  may  be, 
is  of  no  avail  to  this  end ;  it  must  be  first  con- 
verted into  a  grievance.  Were  the  audience 
composed  chiefly  of  the  lower  Farmers  and  the 
Peasantry,  the  same  circumstance  would  for  the 
same  reason  have  been  attributed  wholly  to 
the  Clergy  and  the  system  of  Tythes  ;  as  if 
the  corn  would  be  more  plentiful  if  the  Farm- 
ers paid  their  whole  rent  to  one  man,  instead 
of  paying  nine  parts  to  the  Landlords  and  the 
tenth  to  the  Tythe-owners !  But  let  the  meet- 
ing be  composed  of  the  Manufacturing  Poor, 
and  then  it  is  the  Machinery  of  their  employ- 
ers that  is  devoted  to  destruction :  though  it 
would  not  exceed  the  truth  if  I  affirmed,  that 


137 

to  the  use  and  perfection  of  this  very  Machinery 
the  majority  of  the  poor  deluded  destroyers 
owe  their  very  existence,  owe  to  it  that  they 
ever  beheld  the  light  of  heaven ! 

Even  so  it  is  with  the  Capitalists  and  Store- 
keepers,  who  by  spreading  the  dearness  of 
provisions  over  a  larger  space  and  time  prevent 
scarcity  from  becoming  real  famine,  the  fright- 
ful lot  at  certain  and  not  distant  intervals  of 
our  less  commercial  forefathers.     These  men 
by  the  mere  instinct  of  self-interest  are  not 
alone  birds  of  warning,  that  prevent  waste ; 
but  as  the  raven  of  Elijah,  they  bring  supplies 
from  afar.     But  let  the   incendiary  spirit  have 
rendered  them  birds  of  ill  omen :  and  it  is  well 
if  the  deluded  Malcontents  can  be  restrained 
from  levelling  at  them  missiles  more  alarming 
than  the  curse  of  the  unwise   that  alighteth 
not.     There  be  three  things  (says  the  wise  son 
of  Sirach)  that  mine  heart  feareth,  the  slander 
of  a  city,  the  gathering  together  of  an  unruly 
multitude,  and  a  false  accusation:  all  these  are 
worse  than  death.     But  all  these  are  the  Are- 
na, and  the  chosen  weapons  of  demagogues. 
Wretches !  they  would  without  remorse  detract 

the  hope  that  is  the  subliming  and  expanding 
12* 


138 

warmth  of  public  credit,  destroy  the  public 
credit  that  is  the  vital  air  of  national  industry, 
convert  obstruction  into  stagnation,  and  make 
grass  grow  in  the  exchange  and  the  market- 
place; if  so  they  might  but  goad  ignorance 
into  riot,  and  fanaticism  into  rebellion !  They 
would  snatch  the  last  morsel  from  the  poor 
man's  lips  to  make  him  curse  the  Government 
in  his  heart — alas !  to  fall  at  length,  either  ig- 
nominiously  beneath  the  strength  of  the  out- 
raged Law,  or  (if  God  in  his  anger,  and  for 
the  punishment  of  general  depravity  should 
require  a  severer  and  more  extensive  retribu- 
tion) to  perish  still  more  lamentably  among 
the  victims  of  its  weakness. 

Thus  then,  I  have  answered  at  large  to  the 
first  of  the  three  questions  proposed  as  the 
heads  and  divisions  of  this  Address.  I  am 
well  aware  that  our  demagogues  are  not  the 
only  empirics  who  have  tampered  with  the 
case.  But  I  felt  unwilling  to  put  the  mistakes 
of  sciolism,  or  even  those  of  vanity  and  self- 
interest,  in  the  same  section  with  crime  and 
guilt.  What  is  omitted  here  will  find  its  place 
elsewhere  ;  the  more  readily,  that  having  been 
tempted  by  the  foulness  of  the  ways  to  turn 


139 

for  a  short  space  out  of  my  direct  path,  I  have 
encroached  already  on  the  second  question ; 
that,  namely,  which  respects  the  ultimate  causes 
and  immediate  occasions  of  the  complaint. 

The  latter  part  of  this  problem  I  appear  to 
myself  to  have  solved  fully  and  satisfactorily. 
To  those  who  deem  any  further  or  deeper 
research  superfluous,  I  must  content  myself 
with  observing,  that  I  have  never  heard  it  de- 
nied, that  there  is  more  than  a  sufficiency  of 
food  in  existence.  I  have,  at  least,  met  with 
no  proof  that  there  is,  or  has  been  any  scarcity, 
either  in  the  materials  of  all  necessary  com- 
forts, or  any  lack  of  strength,  skill  and  industry 
to  prepare  them.  If  we  saw  a  man  in  health 
pining  at  a  full  table  because  there  was  not 
'  the  savory  meat  there  which  he  loved,'  and 
had  expected,  the  wanton  delay  or  negligence 
of  the  messenger  would  be  a  complete  answer 
to  our  enquiries  after  the  occasion  of  this  sul- 
lenness  or  inappetence ;  but  the  cause  of  it  we 
should  be  tempted  to. seek  in  the  man's  own 
undisciplined  temper,  or  habits  of  self-indul- 
gence. So  far  from  agreeing  therefore  with 
those  who  find  the  causes  in  the  occasions,  I 
think  the  half  of  the  question  already  solved 


140 

of  every  unequal  importance  with  that  which 
yet  remains  for  solution. 

The  immediate  occasions  of  the  existing  dis- 
tress may  be  correctly  given  with  no  greater 
difficulty  than  would  attend  any  other  series  of 
known  historic  facts  ;  but  toward  the  discovery 
of  its  true  seat  and  sources,  I  can  but  offer  a 
humble  contribution.  They  appear  to  me,  how- 
ever, resolvable  into  the  Overbalance*  or 
the  Commercial  Spirit  in  consequence 
of  the  absence  or  weakness  of  the 
counter- weights;  this  overbalance  consider- 
ed as  displaying  itself,  1.  In   the  Commercial 

*  I  entreat  attention  to  the  word,  over- balance.  My  opin- 
ions would  be  greatly  misinterpreted  if  I  were  supposed  lo 
think  hostilely  of  the  spirit  of  commerce  to  which  I  attribute 
the  largest  proportion  of  our  actual  freedom  (i.  e.  as  English- 
men, and  not  merely  as  Landowners)  and  at  least  as  large  a 
share  of  our  virtues  as  of  our  vices.  Still  more  anxiously 
would  I  guard  against  the  suspicion  of  a  design  to  inculpate 
any  number  or  class  of  individuals.  It  is  not  in  the  power  of 
a  minister  or  of  a  cabinet  to  say  to  the  current  of  national  ten- 
dency, stay  here !  or  flow  there !  The  excess  can  only  be 
remedied  by  the  slow  progress  of  intellect,  the  influences  of 
religion,,  and  irresistible  events  guided  by  Providence.  In  the 
points  even,  which  I  have  presumed  to  blame,  by  the  word 
Government  I  intend  all  the  directors  of  political  power,  that 
is,  the  great  estates  of  the  Realm,  temporal  and  spiritual,  and 
not  only  the  Parliament,  but  all  the  elements  of  Parliament. 


141 

World  itself:  2.  In  the  Agricultural:  3.  In 
the  Government :  and  4.  In  the  combined  In- 
fluence of  all  three  on  the  more  numerous  and 
labouring  Classes. 

Of  the  natural  counter-forces  to  the  impetus 
of  trade  the  first,  that  presents  itself  to  my 
mind,  is  the  ancient  feeling  of  rank  and  an- 
cestry, compared  with  our  present  self-compla- 
cent triumph  over  these  supposed  prejudices. 
Not  that  titles  and  the  rights  of  precedence 
are  pursued  by  us  with  less  eagerness  than  by 
our  Forefathers.  The  contrary  is  the  case ; 
and  for  this  very  cause,  because  they  inspire 
less  reverence.  In  the  old  times  they  were 
valued  by  the  possessors  and  revered  by  the 
people  as  distinctions  of  Nature,  which  the 
crown  itself  could  only  ornament,  but  not  give. 
Like  the  stars  in  Heaven,  their  influence  was 
wider  and  more  general,  because  for  the  mass 
of  mankind  there  was  no  hope  of  reaching,  and 
therefore  no  desire  to  appropriate,  them.  That 
many  evils  as  well  as  advantages  accompanied 
this  state  of  things  I  am  well  aware :  and  like- 
wise that  many  of  the  latter  have  become  in- 
compatible with  far  more  important  blessings. 
It  would  therefore  be  sickly  affectation  to  sus- 


142 

pend  the  thankfulness  due  for  our  immunity 
from  the  one  in  an  idle  regret  for  the  loss  of 
the  other.  But  however  true  this  may  be,  and 
whether  the  good  or  the  evil  proponderated, 
still  it  acted  as  a  counterpoise  to  the  grosser 
superstition  for  wealth.  Of  the  efficiency  of 
this  counter-influence  we  can  offer  negative 
proof  only:  and  for  this  we  need  only  look 
back  on  the  deplorable  state  of  Holland  in  re- 
spect of  patriotism  and  public  spirit  at  and 
before  the  commencement  of  the  French  revo- 
lution. 

The  limits  and  proportions  of  this  address 
allow  little  more  than  a  bare  reference  to  this 
point.  The  same  restraint  I  must  impose  on 
myself  in  the  following.  For  under  this  head 
I  conclude  the  general  neglect  of  all  the  aus- 
terer  studies ;  the  long  and  ominous  eclipse  of 
Philosophy;  the  usurpation  of  that  venerable 
name  by  physical  and  psychological  Empiri- 
cism ;  and  the  non-existence  of  a  learned  and 
philosophic  Public,  which  is  perhaps  the  only 
innoxious  form  of  an  imperium  in  imperio,  but 
at  the  same  time  the  only  form  which  is  not 
directly  or  indirectly  encouraged.  So  great  a 
risk  do  I  incur  of  malignant  interpretation,  and 


143 

the  assertion  itself  is  so  likely  to  appear  para- 
doxical even  to  men  of  candid  minds,  that  I 
should  have  passed  over  this  point,  most  im- 
portant as  I  know  it  to  be  ;  but  that  it  will  be 
found  stated  more  at  large,  with  all  its  proofs, 
in  a  work  on  the  point  of  publication.  The 
fact  is  simply  this.  We  have — Lovers,  shall  I 
entitle  them  ?  Or  must  I  not  rather  hazard  the 
introduction  of  their  own  phrases,  and  say, 
Amateurs  or  Dillettanti,  as  Musicians,  Botan- 
ists, Florists,  Mineralogists,  and  Antiquarians. 
Nor  is  it  denied  that  these  are  ingenuous  pur- 
suits, and  such  as  become  men  of  rank  and 
fortune.  Neither  in  these  or  in  any  other 
points  do  I  complain  of  any  excess  in  the  pur- 
suits themselves ;  but  of  that  which  arises  from 
the  deficiency  of  the  counterpoise.  The  effect 
is  the  same.  Every  work,  which  can  be  made 
use  of  either  to  immediate  profit  or  immediate 
pleasure,  every  work  which  falls  in  with  the 
desire  of  acquiring  wealth  suddenly,  or  which 
can  gratify  the  senses,  or  pamper  the  still  more 
degrading  appetite  for  scandal  and  personal 
defamation,  is  sure  of  an  appropriate  circula- 
tion. But  neither  Philosophy  or  Theology  in 
the  strictest  sense  of  the  words,  can  be  said 


144 

to  have  even  a  public  existence  among  us.  I 
feel  assured,  that  if  Plato  himself  were  to  re- 
turn and  renew  his  sublime  lucubrations  in  the 
metropolis  of  Great  Britain,  a  handicraftsman, 
from  a  laboratory,  who  had  just  succeeded  in 
disoxydating  an  Earth,  would  be  thought  far 
the  more  respectable,  nay,  the  more  illustri- 
ous person  of  the  two.  Nor  will  it  be  the  least 
drawback  from  his  honors,  that  he  had  never 
even  asked  himself,  what  law  of  universal  Be- 
ing Nature  uttered  in  this  phenomenon :  while 
the  character  of  a  visionary  would  be  the  sole 
remuneration  of  the  man,  who  from  the  insight 
into  that  law  had  previously  demonstrated  the 
necessity  of  the  fact.  As  to  that  which  passes 
with  us  under  the  name  ol  metaphysics,  phi- 
losophic elements,  and  the  like,  I  refer  every 
man  of  reflection  to  the  contrast  between  the 
present  times  and  those  shortly  after  the  re- 
storation of  ancient  literature.  In  the  latter 
we  find  the  greatest  men  of  the  age,  Statesmen, 
Warriors,  Monarchs,  Architects,  in  closest  in- 
tercourse with  philosophy.  I  need  only  men- 
tion the  names  of  Lorenzo  the  magnificent ; 
Picus,  Count  Mirandula,  Ficinus  and  Politian; 
the  abstruse  subjects  of  their  discussion,  and 


145 

the  importance  attached  to  them,  as  the  requi- 
site qualifications  of  men  placed  by  Providence 
as  guides  and  governors  of  their  fellow-creatures. 
If  this  be  undeniable,  equally  notorious  is  it 
that  at  present  the  more  effective  a  man's  tal- 
ents are,  and  the  more  likely  he  is  to  be  useful 
and  distinguished  in  the  highest  situations  of 
public  life,  the  earlier  does  he  shew  his  aversion 
to  the  metaphysics  and  the  books  of  meta- 
physical speculation,  which  are  placed  before 
him :  though  they  come  with  the  recommen- 
dation of  being  so  many  triumphs  of  modern 
good  sense  over  the  schools  of  ancient  phi- 
losophy. Dante,  Petrarch,  Spencer,  Sir  Philip 
Sidney,  Algernon  Sidney,  Milton  and  Barrow 
were  Platonists.  But  all  the  men  of  genius, 
with  whom  it  has  been  my  fortune  to  converse, 
either  profess  to  know  nothing  of  the  present 
systems,  or  to  despise  them.  It  would  be 
equally  unjust  and  irrational  to  seek  the  solu- 
tion of  this  difference  in  the  men ;  and  if  not,  it 
can  be  found  only  in  the  philosophic  systems 
themselves.  And  so  in  truth  it  is.  The  Liv- 
ing of  former  ages  communed  gladly  with  a 
life-breathing  philosophy.  The  Living  of  the 
present  age  wisely  leave  the  dead  to  take  care 
of  the  dead.  13 


146 

But  whatever  the  causes  may  be,  the  result 
is  before  our  eyes.  An  excess  in  our  attach- 
ment to  temporal  and  personal  objects  can  be 
counteracted  only  by  a  pre-occupation  of  the  in- 
tellect and  the  affections  with  permanent,  unw 
versal,  and  eternal  truths.  Let  no  man  enter, 
said  Plato,  who  has  not  previously  disciplined 
his  mind  by  Geometry.  He  considered  this 
science  as  the  first  purification  of  the  soul,  by 
abstracting  the  attention  from  the  accidents  of 
the  senses.  We  too  teach  Geometry  j  but  that 
there  may  be  no  danger  of  the  pupil's  becom- 
ing too  abstract  in  his  conceptions,  it  has  been 
not  only  proposed,  but  the  proposal  has  been 
adopted,  that  it  should  be  taught  by  wooden 
diagrams !  It  pains  me  to  remember  with  what 
applause  a  work,  that  placed  the  inductions  of 
modern  Chemistry  in  the  same  rank  with  the 
demonstrations  of  Mathematical  Science,  was 
received  even  in  a  mathematical  University.  I 
must  not  permit  myself  to  say  more  on  this 
subject,  desirous  as  I  am  of  shewing  the  impor- 
tance of  a  philosophic  class,  and  of  evincing 
that  it  is  of  vital  utility,  and  even  an  essential 
element  in  the  composition  of  a  civilized  com- 
munity.    It  must  suffice,  that  it  has  been  ex- 


147 

plained  in  what  respect  the  pursuit  of  Truth 
for  its  own  sake,  and  the  reverence  yielded  to 
its  professors,  has  a  tendency  to  calm  or  coun- 
teract the  pursuit  of  wealth ;  and  that  therefore 
a  counterforce  is  wanting  wherever  Philosophy 
is  degraded  in  the  estimation  of  society.  What 
are  you  (a  philosopher  was  once  asked)  in  con- 
sequence of  your  admiration  of  these  abstruse 
speculations  ?  He  answered :  What  I  am,  it 
does  not  become  me  to  say ;  but  what  thou- 
sands are,  who  despise  them,  and  even  pride 
themselves  on  their  ignorance,  I  see — and 
tremble ! 

There  is  a  third  influence,  alternately  our 
spur  and  our  curb,  without  which  all  the  pur- 
suits and  desires  of  man  must  either  exceed  or 
fall  short  of  their  just  measure.  Need  I  add, 
that  I  mean  the  influence  of  Religion  ?  I  speak 
of  that  sincere,  that  entire  interest,  in  the  un- 
divided faith  of  Christ  which  demands  the  first- 
fruits,  of  the  whole  man,  his  affections  no  less 
than  his  outward  acts,  his  understanding  equal- 
ly with  his  feelings.  For  be  assured,  never 
yet  did  there  exist  a  full  faith  in  the  divine 
Word,  (by  whom  not  Immortality  alone,  but 
Light  and  Immortality  were  brought  into  the 


148 

world)  which  did  not  expand  the  intellect  while 
it  purified  the  heart ;  which  did  not  multiply 
the  aims  and  objects  of  the  mind,  while  it  fixed 
and  simplified  those  of  the  desires  and  passions. 
If  acquiescence  without  insight ;  if  warmth  with- 
out light ;  if  an  immunity  from  doubt  given  and 
guaranteed  by  a  resolute  ignorance ;  if  the 
habit  of  taking  for  granted  the  words  of  a  cate- 
chism, remembered  or  forgotten ;  if  a  sensation 
of  positiveness  substituted — I  will  not  say,  for 
certainty;  but — for  that  calm  assurance,  the 
very  means  and  conditions  of  which  it  super- 
sedes ;  if  a  belief  that  seeks  the  darkness,  and 
yet  strikes  no  root,  immovable  as  the  limpet 
from  its  rock,  and  like  the  limpet  fixed  there 
by  mere  force  of  adhesion  ;  if  these  suffice  to 
make  us  Christians,  in  what  intelligible  sense 
could  our  Lord  have  announced  it  as  the  height 
and  consummation  of  the  signs  and  miracles 
which  attested  his  Divinity,  that  the  Gospel  was 
preached  to  the  Poor?  In  what  sense  could 
the  Apostle  affirm,  that  Believers  have  receiv- 
ed, not  indeed  the  wisdom  of  this  world  that 
comes  to  nought,  but  the  wisdom  of  God,  that 
we  might  know  and  comprehend  the  things 
that  are  freely  given  to  us  of  God?    or  that 


149 

every  Christian,  in  proportion  as  he  is  indeed 
a  Christian,  has  received  the  Spirit  that  search- 
eth  all  things,  yea  the  deep  things  of  God  him- 
self?— on  what  grounds  could  the  Apostle  de- 
nounce even  the  sincerest  fervor  of  spirit  as 
defective,  where  it  does  not  bring  forth  fruits 
in  the  Understanding  ?*     Or  again :  if  to  be- 
lieve were  enough,  why  are  we  commanded  by 
another  Apostle,  that,  "besides  this,  giving  all 
diligence  we  should  add  to  our  faith  manly  en- 
ergy and  to  manly  energy  knowledge  /"     Is  it 
not   especially  significant,  that  in  the  divine 
ceconomy,  as  revealed  to  us  in  the  New  Tes- 
tament, the  peculiar  office  of  Redemption  is 
attributed  to  the  Word,  that  is,  to  the  intelli- 
gential  wisdom  which  from  all  eternity  is  with 
God,  and  is  God  1  that  in  him  is  life,  and  the 
life  is  the  light  of  men  1 

In  the  present  day  we  hear  much,  and  from 
men  of  various  creeds,  of  the  plainness  and 
simplicity  of  the  Christian  religion :  and  strange 
abuse  has  been  made  of  these  words,  often 
indeed  with  no  ill  intention,  but  still  oftener  by 
men  who  would  fain  transform  the  necessity  of 

*  Brethren !  be  not  children  in  understanding :  howbeit,  in 
malice  be  ye  children,  but  in  understanding  be  men. 

13* 


150 

believing  in  Christ  into  a  recommendation  to 
believe  him.  The  advocates  of  the  latter 
scheme  grew  out  of  a  sect  that  were  called 
Socinians,  but  having  succeeded  in  disbelieving 
far  beyond  the  last  foot-marks  of  the  Socini, 
have  chosen  to  designate  themselves  by  the 
name  of  Unitarians.  But  this  is  a  word,  which 
in  its  proper  sense,  can  belong  only  to  their 
antagonists :  for  Unity  or  Unition,  and  indistin- 
guishable Unicity  or  Oneness,  are  incompati- 
ble terms:  while,  in  the  exclusive  sense  in 
which  they  mean  the  name  to  be  understood, 
it  is  a  presumptuous  boast,  and  an  uncharitable 
calumny.  Their  true  designation,  which  sim- 
ply expresses  a  fact  admitted  on  all  sides, 
would  be  that  of  Psilanthropists*  or  assertors 
of  the  mere  humanity  of  Christ.  It  is  the  inter- 
est of  these  men  to  speak  of  the  Christian  reli- 

*  New  things  justify  new  terms.  Novis  in  rebus  licet  nova 
nobis  verba  confingere. — We  never  speak  of  the  unity  of  At- 
traction, or  of  the  unity  of  Repulsion ;  but  of  the  unity  of  At- 
traction and  Repulsion  in  each  one  corpuscle.  The  essential 
diversity  of  the  ideas,  unity  and  sameness,  was  among  the  ele- 
mentary principles  of  the  old  Logicians ;  and  the  sophisms 
grounded  on  the  confusion  of  these  terms  have  been  ably  ex- 
posed by  Leibnitz,  in  bis  Critique  on  Wissowatius,  the  acutest, 
perhaps,  of  all  the  learned  Socinian  divines,  whenSocinian  di- 
vines were  undeniably  men  of  learning. 


151 

gion  as  comprized  in  a  few  plain  doctrines,  and 
containing  nothing  not  intelligible,  at  the  first 
hearing,  to  men  of  the  narrowest  capacities. 
Well  then,  (it  might  be  replied)  we  are  dis- 
posed to  place  a  full  reliance  on  the  veracity  of 
the  great  Founder  of  the  Christian  Religion, 
and  likewise — which  is  more  than  you  your- 
selves are  on  all  occasions  willing  to  admit — on 
the  accuracy  and  competence  of  the  Writers, 
who  first  recorded  his  acts  and  sayings.  We 
have  learned  from  you,  whom, — and  we  now 
wish  to  hear  from  you — what  we  are  to  believe. 
The  answer  is : — the  actural  occurrence  of  an 
extraordinary  event,  as  recorded  by  the  biog- 
raphers of  Jesus,  in  confirmation  of  doctrines, 
without  the  previous  belief  of  which,  no  man 
would,  or  rather,  according  to  St.  Paul's  dec- 
laration, could  become  a  convert  to  Christianity ; 
doctrines,  which  it  is  certain,  that  Christ's  im- 
mediate disciples  believed,  not  less  confidently 
before  they  had  acknowledged  his  mission,  than 
they  did  afterwards.  Religion  and  politics, 
they  tell  us,  require  but  the  application  of  a 
common  sense,  which  every  man  possesses,  to 
a  subject  in  which  every  man  is  concerned. 
"  To  be  a  musician,  an  orator,  a  painter,  or 


152 

even  a  good  mechanician,  pre -supposes  genius  ; 
to  be  an  excellent  artizan  or  mechanic  requires 
more  than  an  average  degree  of  talent ;  but  to 
be  a  legislator  or  a  theologian,  or  both  at  once, 
demands  nothing  but  common  sense."*  Now 
we  willingly  admit  that  nothing  can  be  neces- 
sary to  the  salvation  of  a  Christian  which  is  not 
in  his  power.  For  such,  therefore,  as  have 
neither  the  opportunity  or  the  capacity  of  learn- 
ing more,  sufficient,  doubtless,  will  be  the  be- 
lief of  those  plain  truths,  and  the  fulfilment  of 
those  commands,  which  to  be  incapable  of  un- 
derstanding, is  to  be  a  man  in  appearance  only. 
But  even  to  this  scanty  creed  the  disposition  of 
faith  must  be  added :  and  let  it  not  be  forgotten, 
that  though  nothing  can  be  easier  than  to  un- 
derstand a  code  of  belief,  four-fifths  of  which 
consists  in  avowals  of  disbelief,  and  the  re- 
mainder in  truths,  concerning  which  (in  this 
country  at  least)  a  man  must  have  taken  pains 

*  The  Friend,  Vol.  I.  As  the  original  work,  of  which  but  a 
small  number  of  copies  were  printed  on  stamped  sheets,  and 
sent  to  the  subscribers  by  the  post,  is  not  to  be  procured ;  the 
reference  is  made  to  the  edition  now  printing,  in  three  vo- 
lumes, of  the  size  of  the  British  Essayists :  if  indeed  a  work,  a 
great  part  of  which  is  new  in  substance,  and  the  whole  in  form 
and  arrangement,  can  be  described  as  an  edition  of  the  former. 


153 

to  learn  to  have  any  doubt ;  yet  it  is  by  no 
means  easy  to  reconcile  this  code  of  negatives 
with  the  declarations  of  the  Christian  Scripture. 
On  the  contrary,  it  requires  all  the  resources 
of  verbal  criticism,  and  all  the  perverse  subtle- 
ty of  special  pleading,  to  work  out  a  plausible 
semblance  of  correspondency  between  them. 
It  must,  however,  be  conceded,  that  a  man  may 
consistently  spare  himself  the  trouble  of  the 
attempt,  and  leave  the  New  Testament  unread, 
after  he  has  once  thoroughly  persuaded  himself 
that  it  can  teach  him  nothing  of  any  real  impor- 
tance that  he  does  not  already  know.  St.  Paul 
indeed  thought  otherwise.  For  though  he  too 
teaches  us,  that  in  the  religion  of  Christ  there 
is  milk  for  babes ;  yet  he  informs  us  at  the  same 
time,  that  there  is  meat  for  strong  men  !  and  to 
the  like  purpose  one  of  the  Fathers  has  observ- 
ed, that  in  the  New  Testament  there  are  shal- 
lows where  the  lamb  may  ford,  and  depths 
where  the  elephant  must  swim.  The  Apostle 
exhorts  the  followers  of  Christ  to  the  continual 
study  of  the  new  religion,  on  the  ground  that 
in  the  mystery  of  Christ,  which  in  other  ages 
was  not  made  known  to  the  sons  of  men,  and 
in  the  riches  of  Christ  which  no  research  could 


154 

exhaust,  there  were  contained  all  the  treasures 
of  knowledge  and  wisdom.  Accordingly,  in 
that  earnestness  of  spirit,  which  his  own  per- 
sonal experience  of  the  inspired  truth,  he  prays 
with  a  solemn  and  a  ceremonious  fervor,  that 
being  "  strengthened  with  might  in  the  inner 
man,  they  may  be  able  to  comprehend  with  all 
saints  what  is  the  breadth  and  length  and  depth 
and  height,"  of  that  living  Principle,  at  once 
the  Giver  and  the  Gift !  of  that  anointing  Faith, 
which  in  endless  evolution  "  teaches  us  of  all 
things,  and  is  truth  /"  For  all  things  are  but 
parts  and  forms  of  its  progressive  manifestation, 
and  every  new  knowledge  but  a  new  organ  of 
sense  and  insight  into  this  one  all-inclusive  Ve- 
rity, which,  still  filling  the  vessel  of  the  under- 
standing, still  dilates  it  to  a  capacity  of  yet 
other  and  yet  greater  Truths,  and  thus  makes 
the  soul  feel  its  poverty  by  the  very  amplitude 
of  its  present,  and  the  immensity  of  its  rever- 
sionary, wealth.  All  truth  indeed  is  simple, 
and  needs  no  extrinsic  ornament.  And  the 
more  profound  the  truth  is,  the  more  simple : 
for  the  whole  labour  and  building-up  of  knowl- 
edge is  but  one  continued  process  of  simplifi- 
cation.   But  I  cannot   comprehend,  in  what 


155 

ordinary  sense  of  the  words  the  properties  of 
plainness  and  simplicity  can  be  applied  to  the 
Prophets,  or  to  the  Writings  of  St.  John,  or  to 
the  Epistles  of  St.  Paul ;  or  what  can  have  so 
marvellously  improved  the  capacity  of  our  laity 
beyond  the  same  class  of  persons  among  the 
primitive  Christians ;  who,  as  we  are  told  by 
a  fellow  apostle,  found  in  the  Writings  last- 
mentioned  many  passages  hard  to  be  under- 
stood, which  the  unlearned,    as   well   as   the 
unstable,  were  in  danger  of  wresting  and  mis- 
interpreting.    I  can  well  understand,  however, 
what  is  and  has  been  the  practical  consequence 
of  this  notion.     It  is  this  very  consequence  in- 
deed, that  occasioned  the  preceding  remarks, 
makes  them  pertinent  to  my  present  subject, 
and  gives  them  a  place  in  the  train  of  argument 
requisite  for  its  illustration.     For  what  need 
of  any  after-recurrence  to  the  sources  of  infor- 
mation concerning  a  religion,  the  whole  con- 
tents of  which  can  be  thoroughly  acquired  at 
once,  and  in  a  few  hours  ?     An  occasional  re- 
membrancing  may,  perhaps,  be  expedient ;  but 
what  object  of  study  can  a  man   propose  to 
himself  in  a  matter  of  which  he  knows  all  that 
can  be  known,  all  at  least,  that  it  is  for  us  to 


156 

know?    Like  the  first  rules  of  arithmetic,  its 
few  plain  and  obvious  truths  may  hourly  serve 
the  man's  purposes,  yet  never  once  occupy  his 
thoughts.     But  it  is  impossible  that  the  affec- 
tions  should  be   kept  constant  to  an  object 
which  gives  no  employment  to  the  understand- 
ing.    The  energies  of  the  intellect,  increase  of 
insight,  and  enlarging  views,  are  necessary  to 
keep  alive  the  substantial  faith  in  the  heart. 
They  are  the  appointed  fuel  to  the  sacred  fire. 
In  the  state  of  Perfection  all  other  faculties 
may,  perhaps,  be  swallowed  up  in  love ;  but  it 
is  on  the  wings  of  the  Cherubim,  which  the  an- 
cient Hebrew  Doctors  interpreted  as  meaning 
the  powers  and  efforts  of  the  Intellect,  that  we 
must  first  be  borne  up  to  the  "pure  Empyre- 
an :"  and  it  must  be  Seraphs  and  not  the  hearts 
of  poor  Mortals,  that  can  burn  unfuelled  and 
self-fed.    "  Give  me  understanding  (exclaimed 
the  royal  Psalmist)  and  I  shall  observe  thy  law 
with  my  whole  heart.     Teach  me  knowledge 
and   good  judgment.     Thy  commandment  is 
exceeding  broad :  O  how  I  love  thy  law !  it  is 
my  meditation  all  the  day.     The  entrance  of 
thy  words  giveth  light,  it  giveth  understanding 
to  the  simple.     I  prevented  the  dawning  of  the 


157 

morning :  mine  eyes  prevent  the  night-watch- 
es, that  I  might  meditate  upon  thy  word." 
Now  where  the  very  contrary  of  this  is  the 
opinion  of  many,  and  the  practice  of  most, 
what  results  can  be  expected  but  those  which 
are  actually  presented  to  us  in  our  daily  expe- 
rience. 

There  is  one  class  of  men*  who  read  the 
Scriptures,  when  they  do  read  them,  in  order 
to  pick  and  choose  their  faith ;  or  (to  speak  more 
accurately)  for  the  purpose  of  plucking  away 
live-asunder,  as  it  were,  from  the  divine  organ- 
ism of  the  Bible,  textuary  morsels  and  frag- 
ments for  the  support  of  doctrines  which  they 

*  Whether  it  be  on  the  increase,  as  a  Sect,  is  doubtful.  But 
it  is  admitted  by  all—nay,  strange  as  it  may  seem,  made  a  mat- 
ter of  boast, — that  the  number  of  its  secret  adherents,  out- 
wardly of  other  denominations,  is  tenfold  greater  than  that  of 
its  avowed  and  incorporated  Followers.  And  truly,  in  our 
cities  and  great  manufacturing  and  commercial  towns,  among 
Lawyers  and  such  of  the  Tradesfolk  as  are  the  ruling  members 
in  Book-clubs,  I  am  inclined  to  fear  that  this  has  not  been  as- 
serted without  good  ground.  For  Socinianism  in  its  present 
form,  consisting  almost  wholly  in  attack  and  imagined  detec- 
tion, has  a  particular  charm  for  what  are  called  shrewd,  know- 
ing men.  Besides,  the  vain  and  half-educated,  whose  Chris- 
tian and  sir  names  in  the  title  pages  of  our  Magazines,  Lady's 
Diaries,  &c.  are  the  successors  of  the  shame-faced  Critos, 
Phileleutheroses,  and  Philaletheses  in  the  time  of  our  Grand- 

14 


158 

had  learned  beforehand  from  the  higher  oracle 
of  their  own  natural  Common- Sense.  Sanctas 
Scripturas  frustant  ut  frustrent.  Through  the 
gracious  dispensations  of  Providence  a  com- 
plexity of  circumstances  may  co-operate  as 
antidotes  to  a  noxious  principle,  and  realize  the 
paradox  of  a  very  good  man  under  a  very  evil 
faith.  It  is  not  denied,  that  a  Socinian  may  be 
as  honest,  useful  and  benevolent  a  character 
as  any  of  his  neighbours ;  and  if  he  thinks  more 
and  derives  a  larger  portion  of  his  pleasures 
from  intellectual  sources,  he  is  likely  to  be  more 
so.  But  in  such  instances,  and  I  am  most  wil- 
ling to  bear  witness  from  my  own  experience, 

fathers,  will  be  something :  and  now  that  Deism  has  gone  out 
of  fashion,  Socinianisrn  has  swept  up  its  Refuse.  As  the  main 
success  of  this  sect  is  owing  to  the  small  proportion  which  the 
affirmative  articles  of  their  Faith  (rari  nantes  in  gurgxte  vasto) 
bear  to  the  negative,  (that  is,  their  Belief  to  their  Disbelief,  it 
wUl  be  an  act  of  kindness  to  the  unwary  to  bring  together  the 
former  under  one  point  of  view.  This  is  done  in  the  following 
Catalogue,  the  greater  part  if  not  the  whole  of  which  may  be 
authenticated  from  the  writings  of  Mr.  Belsham. 

1.  They  believe  in  one  God,  professing  to  differ  from  other 
Christians  only  in  holding  the  Deity  to  be  unipersonal,  the 
Father  alone  being  God,  the  Son  a  mere,  though  an  inspired 
and  highly  gifted,  man,  and  the  Holy  Spirit  either  a  Synonime 
of  God,  or  of  the  divine  agency,  or  of  its  effects. 

2.  They  believe  men's  actions  necessitated,  and  consistently 


159 

that  they  are  not  infrequent,  the  fruit  is  from 
the  grafts  not  from  the  tree.  The  native  pro- 
duce is,  or  would  be,  an  intriguing,  overbear- 
ing, scornful  and  worldly  disposition ;  and  in 
point  of  fact,  it  is  the  only  scheme  of  Religion 
that  inspires  in  its  adherents  a  contempt  for  the 
understandings  of  all  who  differ  from  them. 
But  be  this  as  it  may,  and  whatever  be  its  ef- 
fects, it  is  not  probable  that  Christianity  will 
have  any  direct  influence  on  men  who  pay  it 
no  other  compliment  than  that  of  calling  by  its 
name  the  previous  dictates  and  decisions  of 
their  own  mother- wit 

But  the   more  numerous  class  is  of  those 

with  this  affirm  that  the  Christian  Religion  (i.  e.  their  view  of 
it)  precludes  all  remorse  for  our  sins,  they  being  a  present  ca- 
lamity, but  not  guilt. 

3.  They  believe  the  Gospels,  though  not  written  by  inspira- 
tion, to  be  authentic  Histories  on  the  whole :  though  with  some 
additions  and  interpolations.  And  on  the  authority  of  these 
Writings,  confirmed  by  other  evidence,  they  believe  in  the 
Resurrection  of  the  Man,  Jesus  Christ,  from  the  dead. 

4.  On  the  historic  credibility  of  this  event  they  believe  in 
the  Resurrection  of  the  Body,  which  in  their  opinion  is  the 
Whole  Man,  at  the  last  Day  i  and  differ  from  other  Churches 
hi  this  only,  that  while  other  Christians  believe,  that  all  Men 
will  arise  in  the  Body,  they  hold,  that  all  the  Bodies  that  had 
been  Men,  will  arise. 


160 

who  do  not  trouble  themselves  at  all  with  reli- 
gious matters,  which  they  resign  to  the  clergy- 
man of  the  parish.  But  while  not  a  few  among 
these  men  consent  to  pray  and  hear  by  proxy ; 
and  while  others,  more  attentive  to  the  pru- 
dential advantages  of  a  decorous  character, 
yield  the  customary  evidence  of  their  church- 
membership  ;  but,  this  performed,  are  at  peace 
with  themselves,  and 

■ — think  their  Sunday's  task 


As  much  as  God  or  Man  can  fairly  ask  ; 

there  exists  amongst  the  most  respectable  Lai- 
ty of  our  cities  and  great  towns,   an  active, 

5.  A  certain  indefinite  number  of  Mankind  thus  renewed 
to  life  and  consciousness,  it  is  the  common  belief  of  them  alt, 
will  be  placed  in  a  state  of  happiness  and  immortality.  But 
with  respect  to  those  who  have  died  in  the  calamitous  condi- 
tion of  unreformed  Sinfulness,  (to  what  extent  it  is. for  the  su- 
preme Judge  to  decide)  they  are  divided  among  themselves. 
The  one  party  teach,  that  such  unhappy  persons  will  be  raised 
only  to  be  re-annihilated:  the  other  party  contend, that  there  will 
be  &  final  Restoration  of  all  Men,  with  a  purgatory  or  state  of 
remedial  discipline,  the  severity  and  duration  of  which  will  be 
proportioned  to  the  kind,  degree,  and  obstinacy  of  the  Disease, 
and  of  which  therefore  every  Man  is  left  to  his  own  conjec- 
tural Hopes  and  Fears  t  with  this  comfort  however  to  the 
very  worst,  (i.  e.  most  unfortunate  and  erroneous  of  Mankind) 
that  it  will  be  all  well  with  them  at  last.    In  this  article  they 


161 

powerful,  and  enlarging  minority,  whose  in- 
dustry, while  it  enriches  their  families,  is  at  the 
same  time  a  support  to  the  revenue,  and  not 
seldom  enlivens  their  whole  neighbourhood: 
men  whose  lives  are  free  from  all  disreputable- 
infirmities,  and  of  whose  activity  in  the  organi- 
zation, patronage,  and  management  both  of 
charitable  and  of  religious  associations,  who 
must  not  have  read  or  heard?  and  who  that 
has,  will  dare  deny  to  be  most  exemplary? 
After  the  custom  of  our  forefathers,  and  their 
pure  house-hold  religion,*  these,  in  so  many 

*  And  pure  Religion  breathing  household  laws. 

Wordsworth. 

diner  from  the  -Papists,  in  having  no  Hell,  and  in  placing  their 
Purgatory  after,  instead  of  before,  the  Day  of  Judgment. 

6.  Lastly,  as  they  hold  only  an  intellectual  and  physical,  and 
not  a  moral  difference  in  the  actions  and  characters  of  Men 
they  not  being  free  Agents,  and  therefore  not  more  responsible 
Beings  than  the  Brute  Beasts,  although  their  greater  powers 
of  memory  and  comparison  render  them  more  susceptible  of 
being  acted  on  by  prospective  motives^(and  in  this  sense  they 
retain  the  term,  responsibility,  after  having  purified  it  by  the 
ex-inanition  of  its  old,  and  the  transfusion  of  a  new,  meaning) 
—and  as  they,  with  strict  consequence,  merge  all  the  attributes 
of  Deity  in  Power,  Intelligence,  and  Benevolence,  ('Mercy  and 
Justice  being  modes,  or  rather  perspective  views,  of  the  two 
latter ;  the  Holiness  of  God  meaning  the  same  or  nothing  at 
all ;  and  his  Anger,  Offence,  and  Hatred,  of  Moral  Evil,  being 

14* 


162 

respects  estimable  persons,  are  for  the  greater 
part  in  the  habit  of  having  family -prayer,  and 
a  portion  of  Scripture  read  every  morning  and 
evening.  In  this  class,  with  such  changes  or 
substitutions  as  the  peculiar  tenets  of  the  sect 
require,  we  must  include  the  sensible,  orderly 
and  beneficent  Society  of  the  Friends,  more 
commonly  called  Quakers.  Here  then,  if  any 
where,  (that  is,  in  any  class  of  men ;  for  the 
present  argument  is  not  concerned  with  indi- 
viduals) we  may  expect  to  find  Christianity 
tempering  commercial  avidity  and  sprinkling 
its  holy  damps  on  the  passion  of  accumulation. 
This,  I  say,  we  might  expect  to  find,  if  an  un- 

mere  metaphors  and  figures  of  speech  addressed  to  a  rude  and 
barbarous  People)  they  profess  to  hold  a  Redemption — not 
however  by  the  Cross  of  Christ,  except  as  his  death  was  an 
evidence  of  his  sincerity,  and  the  necessary  preliminary  to  his 
Resurrection  ;  but — by  the  effects  which  this  fact  of  his  Res- 
urrection, together  with  his  example,  and  his  re-publication  of 
the  moral  precepts  (taught  indeed  long  before,  but  as  they 
think,  not  so  clearly,  by  Moses  and  the  Prophets)  were  calcu- 
lated to  produce  on  the  human  mind.  So  that  if  it  had  so  hap- 
pened, that  a  man  had  been  influenced  to  an  innocent  and 
useful  life  by  the  example,  precepts,  and  martyrdon  of  Socra- 
tes, Socrates  and  not  Christ,  would  have  been  his  Redeemer. 

These  are  all  the  Positives  of  the  modern  Socinian  Creed, 
and  even  these  it  was  not  possible  to  extricate  wholly  from 
the  points  of  Disbelief.    But  if  it  should  be  asked,  why  this 


163 

doubting  belief  in  the  threats  and  promises  of 
Revelation,  and  a  consequent  regularity  of  per- 
sonal, domestic,  and  social  demeanor,  sufficed 
to  constitute  that  Christianity,  the  power  and 
privilege  of  which  is  so  to  renew  and  irridiate 
the  whole  intelligential  and  moral  life  of  man, 
as  to  overcome  the  spirit  of  the  world.  (St. 
John :  Epistle  I.)  If  this,  the  appointed  test, 
were  found  wanting,  should  we  not  be  forced 
to  apprehend,  nay,  are  we  not  compelled  to 
infer,  that  the  spirit  of  prudential  motive,  how- 
ever ennobled  by  the  magnitude  and  awfulness 
of  its  objects,  and  though  as  the  termination  of  a 
lower,  it  may  be  the  commencement  (and  not 

resurrection,  or  re-creation  is  confined  to  the  human  animal, 
the  answer  must  be — that  more  than  this  has  not  been  reveal- 
ed. And  so  far  all  Christians  will  join  assent.  But  some 
have  added,  and  in  my  opinion  much  to  their  credit,  that  they 
hope,  it  may  be  ihe  case  with  the  Brutes  likewise,  as  they  see 
no  sufficient  reason  to  the  contrary.  And  truly,  upon  their 
scheme,  I  agree  with  them.  For  if  a  Man  be  no  other  or  no- 
bler Creature  essentially,  than  he  is  represented  in  their  system, 
the  meanest  reptile,  that  maps  out  its  path  on  the  earth  by 
lines  of  slime,  must  be  of  equal  worth  and  respectability,  not 
only  in  the  sight  of  the  Holy  One,  but  by  a  strange  contradic- 
tion even  before  Man's  own  reason.  For  remove  all  the  sour- 
ces of  Esteem  and  the  Love  founded  on  esteem,  and  whatever 
else  pre-supposes  a  Will  and,  therein,  a  possible  transcendence 
to  the  material  world :  Mankind,  as  far  as  my  experience  has 


164 

seldom  the  occasion)  of  an  higher  state,  is  not, 
even  in  respect  of  morality  itself,  that  abiding 
and  continuous  principle  of  action,  which  is 
either  one  with  the  faith  spoken  of  by  St.  Paul, 
or  its  immediate  offspring.     It  cannot  be  that 
spirit  of  obedience  to  the  commands  of  Christ, 
by  which  the  soul  dwelleth  in  him,  and  he  in 
it :  (1  John,   c.  iii.   4.)  and  which  our  Saviour 
himself  announces  as  a  being  born  again.     And 
this  indispensable  act,  or  influence,  or  impreg- 
nation, of  which,  as  of  a  divine  tradition,  the 
eldest  philosophy  is  not  silent ;  which  flashed 
through  the  darkness  of  the  pagan  mysteries ; 
and  which  it  was  therefore  a  reproach  to  a 

extended,  'and  I  am  less  than  the  least  of  many  whom  I  could 
cite  as  having  formed  the  veiy  same  judgment,)  are  on  the 
whole  distinguished  from  the  other  Beasts  incomparably  more 
to  their  disadwntage,  by  Lying,  Treachery,  Ingratitude,  Mas- 
sacre, Thirst  of  Blood,  and  by  Sensualities  which  both  in  sort 
and  degree  it  would  be  libelling  their  Brother-beasts  to  call 
bestial,  than  to  their  advantage  by  a  greater  extent  of  Intellect. 
And  what  indeed,  abstracted  from  the  Free-will,  could  this  in- 
tellect be  but  a  more  shewy  instinct  ?  of  more  various  applica- 
tion indeed,  but  far  less  secure,  useful,  or  adapted  to  its  pur- 
poses, than  the  instinct  of  Birds,  Insects,  and  the  like.  In 
short,  as  I  have  elsewhere  observed,  compared  with  the  wiles 
and  factories  of  the  Spider,  or  with  the  cunning  of  the  Fox,  it 
would  be  but  a  more  efflorescent,  and  for  that  very  <  ause  a 


165 

Master  in  Israel,  that  he  had  not  already  known; 
(John's  Gospel,  c.  iii.) — this  is  elsewhere  ex- 
plained, as  a  seed  which,  though  of  gradual 
developement,  did  yet  potentially  contain  the 
essential  form  not  merely  of  a  better,  but  of  an 
other  life :  amidst  all  the  frailties  and  transient 
eclipses  of  mortality  making,  I  repeat,  the  sub- 
jects of  this  regeneration  not  so  properly  bet- 
ter as  other  men,  whom  therefore  the  world 
could  not  but  hate,  as  aliens.  Its  own  native 
growth,  however,  improved  by  cultivation 
(whether  thro'  the  agency  of  blind  symyathies, 
or  of  an  intelligent  self-interest,  the  utmost 
heights  to  which  the  worldly  life  can  ascend) 

less  efficient,  Salt  to  preserve  the  Hog  from  putrifying  before 
its  destined  hour. 

Well  may  the  words  of  Isaiah  be  applied  and  addressed  to 
the  Teachers  and  Followers  of  this  Sect,  or  rather,  I  would 
say,  to  their  Tenets  as  personified — f  The  word  of  the  Lord 
was  unto  them,  precept  upon  preeept,  line  upon  line,  here  a 
little  and  there  a  little,  that  they  might  go  and  fall  backward, 
and  be  broken  and  spared.  Wherefore,  hear  the  word  of  the 
Lord,  ye  Scornful  Men  that  rule  this  people !  Because  ye  have 
said,  We  have  made  a  covenant  with  Death,  and  with  Hell  are 
we  at  agreement !  Your  Covenant  with  Death  shall  b©  annull- 
ed, and  your  agreement  with  Hell  shall  not  stand.  For  you* 
Bed  is  shorter  than  that  a  man  can  stretch  himself  upon  it,  and 
the  covering  narrower  than  that  he  can  wrap  himself  in  it." 

Isaiah  xxviiu 


166 

the  World  has  always  been  ready  and  willing 
to  acknowledge  and  admire.  They  are  of  the 
world :  therefore  speak  they  out  of  the  heart  of 
the  world  ( s*  ™  xda>ou )  and  the  world  heareth 
them.  (1  John,  ivth.) 

To  abstain  from  acts  of  wrong  and  violence, 
to  be  moreover  industrious,  useful,  and  of 
seemly  bearing,  are  qualities  presupposed  in 
the  gospel  code,  as  the  preliminary  conditions, 
rather  than  the  proper  and  peculiar  effects,  of 
Christianity.  But  they  are  likewise  qualities 
so  palpably  indispensable  to  the  temporal  in- 
terests of  mankind  that,  if  we  except  the  brief 
frenzies  of  revolutionary  Riot,  there  never  was 
a  time,  in  which  the  World  did  not  profess  to 
reverence  them :  nor  can  we  state  any  period, 
in  which  a  more  than  ordinary  character  for 
assiduity,  regularity,  and  charitableness  did  not 
secure  the  World's  praise  and  favor,  and  were 
not  calculated  to  advance  the  individuals  own 
worldly  interests  :  provided  only,  that  his  man- 
ners and  professed  tenets  were  those  of  some 
known  and  allowed  body  of  men. 

I  ask  then,  what  is  the  fact?  We  are — 
and,  till  it's  good  purposes,  which  are  many, 
have  been  all  atchieved,  and  we  can  become 


167 

something  better,  long  may  we  continue  such ! 
— a  busy,  enterprizing,  and   commercial   na- 
tion.    The   habits  attached  to  this  character 
must,  if  there  exist  no  adequate  counterpoise, 
inevitably  lead  us,  under  the   specious  names 
of  utility,  practical  knowledge,  and  so  forth,  to 
look  at  all  things  thro'  the  medium  of  the  mar- 
ket, and  to  estimate  the  Worth  of  all  pursuits 
and  attainments  by  their  marketable  value.     In 
this  does  the  Spirit  of  Trade  consist.     Now 
would  the  general  experience  bear  us  out  in 
the  assertion,  that  amid  the  absence  or  declen- 
sion  of  all  other  antagonist  Forces,  there  is 
found  in  the  very  circle  of  the  trading  and  opu- 
lent themselves,  in  the  increase,  namely,  of  re- 
ligious  professors    among   them,    a  spring   of 
resistance  to  the  excess  of  the  commercial  im- 
petus, from  the  impressive  example  of   their 
unworldly  feelings  evidenced  by  their  modera- 
tion in  worldly  pursuits  ?     I  fear,  that  we  may 
anticipate  the  answer  wherever  the  religious 
zeal  of  such  professors  does  not  likewise  mani- 
fest itself  by  the  glad  devotion  of  as  large  a 
portion  of  their  Time  and  Industry,  as  the  duty 
of  providing  a  fair  competence  for  themselves 
and  their  families  leaves  at  their  own  disposal, 


168 

to  the  comprehension  of  those  inspired  wri- 
tings and  the  evolution  of  those  pregnant  truths, 
which  are  proposed  for  our  earnest,  sedulous 
research,  in  order  that  by  occupying  our  un- 
derstandings they  may  more  and  more  assimi- 
late our  affections  ?  I  fear,  that  the  inquiring 
traveller  would  more  often  hear  of  zealous 
Religionists  who  have  read  (and  as  a  duty  too 
and  with  all  due  acquiescence)  the  prophet- 
ic, "Wo  to  them  that  join  house  to  house 
and  lay  field  to  field,  that  they  may  be  alone 
in  the  land !"  and  yet  find  no  object  deform 
the  beauty  of  the  prospect  from  their  window 
or  even  from  their  castle  turrets  so  annoyingly, 
as  a  meadow  not  their  own,  or  a  field  under 
ploughing  with  the  beam-end  of  the  plough 
in  the  hands  of  its  humble  owner!  I  fear,  that 
he  must  too  often  make  report  of  men  lawful 
in  their  dealings,  scriptural  in  their  language, 
alms-givers,  and  patrons  of  Sunday  schools, 
who  are  yet  resistless  and  overawing  Bidders 
at  all  Land  Auctions  in  their  neighbourhood, 
who  live  in  the  center  of  farms  without  leases, 
and  tenants  without  attachments !  Or  if  his 
way  should  lie  through  our  great  towns  and 
manufacturing  districts,  instances  would  grow 


169 

cheap  with  him  of  wealthy  religious  practition- 
ers, who  never  travel  for  orders  without  cards 
of  edification  in  prose  and  verse,  and  small 
tracts  of  admonition  and  instruction,  all  "  plain 
and  easy,  and  suited  to  the  meanest  capaci- 
ties ;"  who  pray  daily,  as  the  first  act  of  the 
morning  and  as  the  last  of  the  evening,  Lead 
us  not  into  temptation!  but  deliver  us  from 
evil !  and  employ  all  the  interval  with  an  edge 
of  appetite  keen  as  the  scythe  of  Death  in  the 
pursuit  of  yet  more  and  yet  more  of  a  tempta- 
tion so  perilous,  that  (as  they  have  full  often 
read,  and  heard  read,  without  the  least  ques- 
tioning, or  whisper  of  doubt)  no  power  short 
of  Omnipotence  could  make  their  deliverance 
from  it  credible  or  conceivable.  Of  all  denom- 
inations of  Christians,  there  is  not  one  in  exist- 
ence or  on  record  whose  whole  scheme  of  faith 
and  worship  was  so  expressly  framed  for  the 
one  purpose  of  spiritualizing  the  mind  and  of 
abstracting  it  from  the  vanities  of  the  world,  as 
the  Society  of  Friends !  not  one,  in  which  the 
church  members  are  connected,  and  their  pro- 
fessed principles  enforced,  by  so  effective  and 
wonderful  a  form  of  discipline.  But  in  the  zeal 
of  their  Founders  and  first  Proselytes  for  per- 

15 


170 

feet  Spirituality  they  excluded  from  their  sys- 
tem all  ministers  specially  trained  and  educated 
for  the  ministry,  with  all  Professional  Theolo- 
gians :  and  they  omitted  to  provide  for  the  rais- 
ing up  among  themselves  any  other  established 
class  of  learned  men,  as  teachers  and  school- 
masters for  instance,  in  their  stead.  Even  at 
this  day,  though  the  Quakers  are  in  general 
remarkably  shrewd  and  intelligent  in  all  world- 
ly concerns,  yet  learning,  and  more  particularly 
theological  learning,  is  more  rare  among  them 
in  proportion  to  their  wealth  and  rank  in  life, 
and  held  in  less  value,  than  among  any  other 
known  sect  of  Christians.  What  has  been  the 
result?  If  the  occasion  permitted,  I  could 
dilate  with  pleasure  on  their  decent  manners 
and  decorous  morals,  as  individuals,  and  their 
exemplary  and  truly  illustrious  philanthropic 
efforts  as  a  Body.  From  all  the  gayer  and  tin- 
sel vanities  of  the  world  their  discipline  has 
preserved  them,  and  the  English  character 
owes  to  their  example  some  part  of  its  manly 
plainness  in  externals.  But  my  argument  is 
confined  to  the  question,  whether  Religion  in 
its  present  state  and  under  the  present  concep- 
tions of  its  demands  and  purposes  does,  even 


171 

among  the  most  religious,  exert  any  efficient 
force  of  controul  over  the  commercial  spirit,  the 
excess  of  which  we  have  attributed  not  to  the 
extent  and  magnitude  of  the  commerce  itself, 
but  to  the  absence  or  imperfection  of  its  ap- 
pointed checks  and  counteragents.  Now  as 
the  system  of  the  Friends  in  its  first  intention 
is  of  all  others  most  hostile  to  worldly-minded- 
ness  on  the  one  hand ;  and  as,  on  the  other, 
the  adherents  of  this  system  both  in  confes- 
sion and  practice  confine  Christianity  to  feelings 
and  motives ;  they  may  be  selected  as  repre- 
sentatives of  the  strict,  but  unstudied  and  un- 
inquiring,  Religionists  of  every  denomination. 
Their  characteristic  propensities  will  supply, 
therefore,  no  unfair  test  for  the  degree  of  re- 
sistance, which  our  present  Christianity  is  ca- 
pable of  opposing  to  the  cupidity  of  a  trading 
people.  That  species  of  Christianity  I  mean, 
which,  as  far  as  knowledge  and  the  faculties  of 
thought  are  concerned, — which,  as  far  as  the 
growth  and  grandeur  of  the  intellectual  man  is 
in  question — is  to  be  learnt  ex  tempore !  A 
Christianity  poured  in  on  the  Catechumen  all 
and  all  at  once,  as  from  a  shower-bath :  and 
which,  whatever  it  may  be  in  the  heart,  yet 


172 

for  the  understanding  and  reason  is  from  boy- 
hood onward  a  thing  past  and  perfected !  If 
the  almost  universal  opinion  be  tolerably  cor- 
rect, the  question  is  answered.  But  I  by  no 
means  appropriate  the  remark  to  the  wealthy 
Quakers,  or  even  apply  it  to  them  in  any  par- 
ticular or  eminent  sense,  when  I  say,  that  often 
as  the  motely  reflexes  of  my  experience  move 
in  long  procession  of  manifold  groups  before 
me,  the  distinguished  and  world-honored  com- 
pany of  Christian  Mammonists  appear  to  the 
eye  of  my  imagination  as  a  drove  of  camels 
heavily  laden,  yet  all  at  full  speed,  and  each  in 
the  confident  expectation  of  passing  through 
the  eye  of  the  needle,  without  stop  or  halt, 
both  beasts  and  baggage. 

Not  without  an  uneasy  reluctance  have  I  ven- 
tured to  tell  the  truth  on  this  subject,  least  I 
should  be  charged  with  the  indulgence  of  a 
satirical  mood  and  an  uncharitable  spleen.  But 
my  conscience  bears  me  witness,  -and  I  know 
myself  too  near  the  grave  to  trifle  with  its  name, 
that  I  am  solely  actuated  by  a  sense  of  the. 
exceeding  importance  of  the  subject  at  the 
present  moment.  I  feel  it  an  awful  duty  to 
exercise  the  honest  liberty  of  free  utterance  in 


"  173 

so  dear  a  concernment  as  that  of  preparing  my 
country  for  a  change  in  its  external  relations, 
which  must  come  sooner  or  later ;  which  I  be- 
lieve to  have  already  commenced ;  and  that  it 
will  depend  on  the  presence  or  absence  of  a 
corresponding  change  in  the  mind  of  the  nation, 
and  above  all  in  the  aims  and  ruling  opinions  of 
our  gentry  and  moneyed  men  whether  it  is  to 
cast  down  our  strength  and  prosperity,  or  to 
fix  them  on  a  firmer  and  more  august  basis. 
"  Surely  to  every  good  and  peaceable  man  it 
must  in  nature  needs  be  a  hateful  thing  to  be 
the  displeaser  and  molester  of  thousands ;  but 
when  God  commands  to  take  the  trumpet  and 
blow  a  dolorous  or  a  jarring  blast,  it  lies  not  in 
man's  will  what  he  shall  say  and  what  he  shall 
conceal." 

That  my  complaints,  both  in  this  and  in  my 
former  Lay  Sermon,  concerning  the  same  er- 
rors, are.  not  grounded  on  any  peculiar  notions 
of  mine,  the  following  remarks  of  a  great  and 
good  man,  not  less  illustrious  for  his  piety  and 
fervent  zeal  as  a  Christian  than  for  his  acuteT 
ness  and  profundity  as  a  Philosopher,  may, 
perhaps,  be  accepted  as  proof. 

"  Prevailing  studies,  he  observes,  are  of  no 
15* 


174* 

small  consequence  to  a  state,  the  religion,  man- 
,  ners,  and  civil  government  of  a  country  ever 
taking  some  bias  from  its  philosophy,  which  af- 
fects not  only  the  minds  of  its  professors  and 
students,  but  also  the  opinions  of  all  the  better 
sort,  and  the  practice  of  the  whole  people,  re- 
motely and  consequentially  indeed,  though  not 
inconsiderably.  Have  not  the  doctrines  of  Ne- 
cessity and  Materialism,  with  the  consequent 
denial  of  men's  responsibility,  of  his  corrupt  and 
fallen  nature,  and  of  the  whole  scheme  of  Re- 
demption by  the  incarnate  Word  gained  ground 
during  the  general  passion  for  the  Corpuscu- 
larian  and  Experimental  Philosophy  which  hath 
prevailed  about  a  century  ?  This  indeed  might 
usefully  enough  have  employed  some  share  of 
the  leisure  and  curiosity  of  inquisitive  persons. 
But  when  it  entered  the  seminaries  of  Learn- 
ing, as  a  necessary  accomplishment  and  as  the 
most  important  part  of  knowledge,  by  engross- 
ing men's  thoughts  and  fixing  their  minds  so 
much  on  corporeal  objects,  it  hath,  however 
undesignedly,  not  a  little  indisposed  them  for 
spiritual,  moral,  and  intellectual  matters.  Cer- 
tainly, had  the  philosophy  of  Pythagoras  and 
Socrates  prevailed  in  this  age,  we  should  not 


175 

have  seen  interest  take  so  general  and  fast  hold 
on  the  minds  of  men.  But  while  the  employ- 
ment of  the  mind  on  things  purely  intellectual 
is  to  most  men  irksome,  whereas  the  sensitive 
powers  by  our  constant  use  of  them,  acquire 
strength,  the  objects  of  sense  are  too  often 
counted  the  chief  good.  For  these  things  men 
fight,  cheat,  and  scramble.  Therefore,  in  or- 
der to  tame  mankind  and  introduce  a  sense  of 
virtue,  the  best  human  means  is  to  exercise 
their  understanding,  to  give  them  a  glimpse  of 
a  world  superior  to  the  sensible :  and  while  they 
take  pains  to  cherish  and  maintain  the  animal 
life,  to  teach  them  not  to  neglect  the  intellec- 
tual. 

It  might  very  well  be  thought  serious  trifling 
to  tell  my  readers  that  the  greatest  men  had 
ever  an  high  esteem  for  Plato ;  whose  writings 
are  the  touchstone  of  an  hasty  and  shallow 
mind ;  whose  philosophy,  the  admiration  of 
ages,  supplied  patriots,  magistrates  and  law- 
givers to  the  most  flourishing  states,  as  well 
fathers  to  the  Church,  and  doctors  to  the 
Schools.  In  these  days  the  depths  of  that  old 
learning  are  rarely  fathomed :  and  yet  it  were 
happy  for  these  lands,  if  our  young  nobility  and 


176 

gentry  instead  of  modern  maxims  would  imbibe 
the  notions  of  the  great  men  of  antiquity.  But 
in  these  free-thinking  times,  many  an  empty 
head  is  shook  at  Aristotle  and  Plato  :  and  the 
writings  of  these  celebrated  ancients  are  by 
most  men  treated  on  a  level  with  the  dry  and 
barbarous  lucubrations  of  the  Schoolmen.  It 
may,  however,  be  modestly  presumed  that 
there  are  not  many  among  us,  even  of  those 
that  are  called  the  better  sort,  who  have  more 
sense,  virtue,  and  love  ot  their  country  than 
Cicero,  who  in  a  letter  to  Atticus  could  not 
forbear  exclaiming,  O  Socrates  et  Socratici 
Viri!  nunquam  vobis  gratiam  referam.  Would 
to  God,  many  of  our  countrymen  had  the  same 
obligations  to  those  Socratic  writers.  Certain- 
ly, where  the  people  are  well  educated,  the  art 
of  piloting  a  state  is  best  learnt  from  the  wri- 
tings of  Plato.  But  among  a  people  void  of 
discipline  a  gentry  devoted  to  vulgar  cares  and 
views,  Plato,  Pythagoras,  and  Aristotle  them- 
selves, were  they  living,  could  do  but  little 
good." 

Thus  then,  of  the  three  most  approved  an- 
tagonists to  the  Spirit  of  Barter,  and  the  accom- 
panying disposition  to  overvalue  Riches  wijth 


177 

all  the  Means  and  tokens  thereof — of  the  three 
fittest  and  most  likely  checks  to  this  tendency, 
namely,  the  feeling  of  ancient  birth  and  the 
respect  paid  to  it  by  the  community  at  large ; 
a  genuine  intellectual  Philosophy  with  an  ac- 
credited, learned,  and  Philosophic  Class ;  and 
lastly,  Religion ;  we  have  found  the  first  de- 
clining, the  second  not  existing,  and  the  third 
efficient,  indeed,  in  many  respects  and  to  many 
excellent  purposes,  only  not  in  this  particular 
direction :  the  Religion  here  spoken  of,  having 
long  since  parted  company  with  that  inquisitive 
and  bookish  Theology  which  tends  to  defraud 
the  student  of  his  worldly  wisdom,  inasmuch 
as  it  diverts  his  mind  from  the  accumulation  of 
wealth  by  pre-occupying  his  thoughts  in  the 
acquisition  of  knowledge.  For  the  Religion  of 
best  repute  among  us  holds  all  the  truths  of 
Scripture  and  all  the  doctrines  of  Christianity 
so  very  transcendent,  or  so  very  easy,  as  to 
make  study  and  research  either  vain  or  need- 
less. It  professes,  therefore,  to  hunger  and 
thirst  after  Righteousness  alone,  and  the  rewards 
of  the  Righteous ;  and  thus  habitually  taking 
for  granted  all  truths  of  spiritual  import  leaves 
the  understanding  vacant  and  at  leisure  for  a 


178 

thorough  insight  into  present  and  temporal  in- 
terests :  which,  doubtless,  is  the  true  reason 
why  its  followers,  are  in  general  such  shrewd, 
knowing,  wary,  well-informed,  thrifty  and  thriv- 
ing men  of  business.  But  this  is  likewise  the 
reason,  why  it  neither  does  or  can  check  or 
circumscribe  the  Spirit  of  Barter ;  and  to  the 
consequent  monopoly  which  this  commercial 
Spirit  possesses,  must  its  over-balance  be  at- 
tributed, not  to  the  extent  or  magnitude  of  the 
Commerce  itself. 

Before  I  enter  on  the  result  assigned  by  me 
as  the  chief  ultimate  cause  of  the  present  state 
of  the  country,  and  as  the  main  ground  on 
which  the  immediate  occasions  of  the  general 
distress  have  worked,  I  must  entreat  my  Read- 
ers to  reflect  that  the  spirit  of  Trade  has  been 
a  thing  of  insensible  growth;  that  whether  it  be 
enough,  or  more  or  less  than  enough,  is  a  mat- 
ter of  relative,  rather  than  of  positive  deter- 
mination ;  that  it  depends  on  the  degree  in 
which  it  is  aided  or  resisted  by  all  the  other 
tendencies  that  co-exist  with  it ;  and  that  in  the 
best  of  times  this  spirit  may  be  said  to  live  on 
a  narrow  isthmus  between  a  sterile  desert  and 
a  stormy  sea,  still  threatened  and  encroached 


179 

on  either  by  the  Too  Much  or  Too  Little.  As 
the  argument  does  not  depend  on  any  precise 
accuracy  in  the  dates,  I  shall  assume  it  to  have 
commenced,  as  an  influencing  part  of  the  na- 
tional character,  with  the  institution  of  the 
Funds  in  the  reign  of  William  the  Third,  and 
from  the  peace  of  Aix-la-Chapelle  in  1748,  to 
have  been  hurrying  onward  to  its  maximum, 
which  it  seems  to  have  attained  during  the  late 
war.  The  short  interruptions  may  be  well  rep- 
resented as  a  few  steps  backward,  that  it  might 
leap  forward  with  an  additional  momentum. 
The  words,  old  and  modern,  now  and  then, 
are  applied  by  me,  the  latter  to  the  whole  pe- 
riod since  the  Revolution,  and  the  former  to 
the  interval  between  this  epoch  and  the  Refor- 
mation ;  the  one  from  1460  to  1680,  the  other 
from  1680  to  the  present  time. 

Having  premised  this  explanation,  I  can  now 
return  an  intelligible  answer  to  a  question,  that 
will  have  risen  in  the  Reader's  mind  during  his 
perusal  of  the  last  three  or  four  pages.  How, 
it  will  be  objected,  does  all  this  apply  to  the 
present  times  in  particular?  When  was  the 
industrious  part  of  mankind  not  attached  to  the 
pursuits  most  likely  to  reward  their  industry  ? 


180 

Was  the  wish  to  make  a  fortune  or,  if  you  pre- 
fer an  invidious  phrase,  the  lust  of  lucre,  less 
natural  to  our  forefathers  than  to  their  descend- 
,  ants  ?  If  you  say,  that  though  a  not  less  fre- 
quent, or  less  powerful  passion  with  them  than 
with  us,  it  yet  met  with  a  more  frequent  and 
more  powerful  check,  a  stronger  and  more  ad- 
vanced boundary -line,  in  the  Religion  of  old 
times,  and  in  the  faith,  fashion,  habits,  and  au- 
thority of  the  Religious  :  in  what  did  this  dif- 
ference consist  1  and  in  what  way  did  these 
points  of  difference  act  ?  If  indeed  the  antidote 
in  question  once  possessed  virtues  which  it  no 
longer  possesses,  or  not  in  the  same  degree, 
what  is  the  ingredient,  either  added,  omitted, 
or  diminished  since  that  time,  which  can  have 
rendered  it  less  efficacious  now  than  then  ? 

Well !  (I  might  reply)  grant  all  this :  and 
let  both  the  profession  and  the  professors  of  a 
spiritual  principle,  as  a  counterpoise  to  the 
worldly  weights  at  the  other  end  of  the  Balance, 
be  supposed  much  the  same  in  the  one  period 
as  in  the  other  !  Assume  for  a  moment,  that  I 
can  establish  neither  the  fact  of  its  lesser  effi- 
ciency, nor  any  points  of  difference  capable  of 
accounting  for  it !     Yet  it  might  still  be  a  suf- 


181 

ficient  answer  to  this  objection,   that  as   the 
commerce  of  the  country,  and  with  it  the  spi- 
rit of  commerce,  has  increased  fifty-fold  since 
the  commencement  of  the  latter  period,  it  is 
not  enough  that  the  counterweight  should  be 
as  great  as  it  was  in  the  former  period :  to 
remain  the  same  in  its  effect,  it  ought  to  have 
become  very  much  greater.     But  though  this 
be  a  consideration  not  less  important  than  it  is 
obvious,  yet  I  do  not  purpose  to  rest  in  it.     I 
affirm,  that  a  difference  may  be  shewn,  and  of 
no  trifling  importance  as  to  that  one  point,  to 
which  my  present  argument  is  confined.     For 
let  it  be  remembered,  that  it  is  not  to  any  ex- 
traordinary influences  of  the  religious  principle 
that  I  am  referring,  not  to  voluntary  poverty, 
or  sequestration  from  social  and  active  life,  or 
schemes  of  mortification.     I  speak  of  Religion 
merely   as   I  should   of   any  worldly   object, 
which,  as  far  as  it  employs  and  interests    a 
man,  leaves  less  room  in  his  mind  for  other 
pursuits :  except  that  this  must  be  more  espe- 
cially   the    case  in  the  instance    of  Religion 
because  beyond  all  other  Interests  it  is   cal- 
culated to  occupy  the  whole  mind,  and  em- 
ploy successively  all  the  faculties  of  man  :  and 

16 


182 

because  the  objects  which  it  presents  to  the 
Imagination  as  well  as  to  the  Intellect  cannot 
be  actually  contemplated,  much  less  can  they 
be  the  subject  of  frequent  meditation,  without 
dimming  the  lustre  and  blunting  the  rays  of 
all  rival  attractions.  It  is  well  known,  and  has 
been  observed  of  old,  that  Poetry  tends  to 
render  its  devotees*  careless  of  money  and 
outward  appearances,  while  Philosophy  inspires 
a  contempt  of  both  as  objects  of  Desire  or  Ad- 
miration. But  Religion  is  the  Poetry  and  Phi- 
losophy of  all  mankind ;  unites  in  itself  whatev- 
er is  most  excellent  in  either,  and  while  it  at 
one  and  the  same  time  calls  into  action  and 
supplies  with  the  noblest  materials  both  the 
imaginative  and  the  intellective  faculties,  su- 
peradds the  interests  of  the  most  substantial 
and  home-felt  reality  to  both,  to  the  poetic  vi- 
sion and  the  philosophic  idea.     But  in  order  to 

*Hic  error  tamen  et  levis  hie  insania  quantas 
Virtutes  habeat,  sic  collige :  vatis  avarus 
Non  temere  est  animus ;  versus  amat,  hoc  studet  unum ; 
Detrimenta,  fugas  servorum,  incendia  ridet ; 
Non  fraudem  socio,  puerove  incogitat  ullam 
Pupillo  ;  vivit  siliquis  et  pane  secundo  : 
Militise  quanquam  piger  et  malus,  utilis  urbi. 

HORAT.   EPIST.   II.  1. 


183 

produce  a  similar  effect  it  must  act  in  a  similar 
way :  it  must  reign  in  the  thoughts  of  a  man 
and  in  the  powers  akin  to  thought,  as  well  as 
exercise  an  admitted  influence  over  his  hopes 
and  fears,  and  through  these  on  his  deliberate 
and  individual  acts. 

Now  as  my  first  presumptive  proof  of  a  dif- 
ference (I  might  almost  have  said,  of  a  contrast) 
between  the  religious  character  of  the  period 
since  the  Revolution,  and  that  of  the  period 
from  the  accession  of  Edward  the  Sixth  to  the 
abdication  of  the  second  James,  I  refer  to  the 
Sermons  and  to  the  theological  Works  gener- 
ally, of  the  latter  period.  It  is  my  full  convic- 
tion, that  in  any  half  dozen  Sermons  of  Dr. 
Donne,  or  Jeremy  Taylor,  there  are  more 
thoughts,  more  facts  and  images,  more  ex- 
citements to  inquiry  and  intellectual  effort,  than 
are  presented  to  the  congregations  of  the  pre- 
sent day  in  as  many  churches  or  meetings 
during  twice  as  many  months.  Yet  both  these 
were  the  most  popular  preachers  of  their  times, 
were  heard  with  enthusiasm  by  crowded  and 
promiscuous  Audiences,  and  the  effect  produced 
by  their  eloquence  was  held  in  reverential  and 
affectionate  remembrance  by  many  attendants 


184 

on  their  ministry,  who  like  the  pious  Isaac  Wal- 
ton, were  not  themselves  men  of  learning  or 
education.     In  addition  to  this  fact,  think  like- 
wise on  the  large  and  numerous   editions   of 
massy,  closely  printed  folios  :  the  impressions 
so  large  and  the  editions  so  numerous,  that  all 
the  industry  of  destruction  for  the  last  hundred 
years  has  but  of  late  sufficed  to  make  them 
rare.     From  the  long  list  select  those  works 
alone,  which  we  know  to  have  been  the  most 
current  and  favorite  works  of  their  day :  and  of 
these  again  no  more  than  may  well  be  suppos- 
ed to  have  had  a  place  in  the  scantiest  libraries, 
or  perhaps  with  the  Bible  and  Common  Prayer 
Book  to  have  formed  the  library  of  their  owner. 
Yet  on  the  single  shelf  so  filled  we  should  find 
almost  every  possible  question,  that  could  inter- 
est or  instruct  a  reader  whose  whole  heart  was 
in  his  religion,  discussed  with  a  command  of  in- 
tellect that  seems  to  exhaust  all  the  learning 
and  logic,  all  the  historical  and  moral  relations, 
of  each  several  subject.     The  very  length  of 
the  discourses,  with  which  these  "rich  souls  of 
wit  and  knowledge"  fixed  the  eyes,  ears,  and 
hearts  of  their  crowded  congregations,   are  a 
source  of  wonder  now-a-days,  and  (we  may 


185 

add)  of  self- congratulation,  to  many  a  sober 
christian,  who  forgets  with  what  delight  he 
himself  has  listened  to  a  two  hours'  harangue 
on  a  Loan  or  Tax,  or  at  the  trial  of  some  re- 
markable cause  or  culprit.  The  transfer  of  the 
interest  makes  and  explains  the  whole  differ- 
ence. For  though  much  may  be  fairly  char- 
ged on  the  revolution  in  the  mode  of  preaching 
as  well  as  in  the  matter,  since  the  fresh  morn- 
ing and  fervent  noon  of  the  Reformation,  when 
there  was  no  need  to  visit  the  conventicles  of 
fanaticism  in  order  to 

See  God's  ambassador  in  the  pulpit  stand, 

Where  they  could  take  notes  from  his  Look  and  Hand  ; 

And  from  his  speaking  action  bear  away 

More  sermon  than  our  preachers  use  to  say ; 

yet  this  too  must  be  referred  to  the  same  change 
in  the  habits  of  men's  minds,  a  change  that  in- 
volves both  the  shepherd  and  the  flock :  though 
like  many  other  Effects,  it  tends  to  reproduce 
and  strengthen  its  own  cause. 

The  last  point,  to  which  I  shall  appeal,  is  the 
warmth  and  frequency  of  the  religious  contro- 
versies during  the  former  of  the  two  periods ; 
the  deep  interest  excited  by  them  among  all 

16*  * 


186 

but  the  lowest  and  most  ignorant  classes  ;  the 
importance  attached  to  them  by  the  very  high- 
est; the  number,  and  in  many  instances  the 
transcendent  merit,  of  the  controversial  publi- 
cations— in  short,  the  rank  and  value  assigned 
to  polemic  divinity.  The~  subjects  of  the  con- 
troversies may  or  may  not  have  been  trifling  ; 
the  warmth,  with  which  they  were  conducted, 
may  have  been  disproportionate  and  indeco- 
rous ;  and  we  may  have  reason  to  congratulate 
ourselves  that  the  age,  in  which  we  live,  is 
grown  more  indulgent  and  less  captious.  The 
fact  is  introduced  not  for  its  own  sake,  but  as 
a  symptom  of  the  general  state  of  men's  feel- 
ings, as  an  evidence  of  the  direction  and  main 
channel,  in  which  the  thoughts  and  interests 
of  men  were  then  flowing.  We  all  know,  that 
lovers  are  apt  to  take  offence  and  wrangle 
with  each  other  on  occasions  that  perhaps  are 
but  trifles,  and  which  assuredly  would  appear 
such  to  those  who  had  never  been  under  the 
influence  of  a  similar  passion.  These  quar- 
rels may  be  no  proofs  of  wisdom ;  but  still  in 
the  imperfect  state  of  our  nature  the  entire  ab- 
sence of  the  same,  and  this  too  on  far  more 
serious   provocations,   would  excite   a  strong 


187 

suspicion  of  a  comparative  indifference  in  the 
feelings  of  the  parties  towards  each  other,  who 
can  love  so  coolly  where  they  profess  to  love 
so  well.     I  shall  believe  our  present  religious 
tolerancy  to  proceed  from  the  abundance  of 
our  charity  and  good  sense,  when  I  can  see 
proofs  that  we  are  equally  cool  and  forbearing, 
as  Litigators  and  political  Partizans.     And  I 
must  again  intreat  my  reader  to  recollect,  that 
the  present  argument  is  exclusively  concerned 
with  the  requisite  correctives  of  the  commer- 
cial spirit,  and  with  Religion  therefore  no  oth- 
erwise, than  as  a  counter-charm  to  the  sorcery 
of  wealth :  and  my  main  position  is  that  neither 
by  reasons  drawn  from  the  nature  of  the  hu- 
man mind,  or  by  facts  of  actual  experience, 
are  we  justified  in  expecting  this  from  a  reli- 
gion which  does  not  employ  and  actuate  the 
understandings  of  men,  and  combine  their  af- 
fections with  it  as  a  system  of  Truth  gradually 
and  progressively  manifesting  itself  to  the  in- 
tellect ;  no  less  than  as  a  system  of  motives 
and  moral  commands  learnt  as  soon  as  heard, 
and  containing  nothing  but  what  is  plain  and 
easy  to  the  lowest  capacities.     Hence  it  is, 


188 

that  Objects,  the  ostensible  principle  of  which 
I  have  felt  it  my  duty  to  oppose  (vide  the 
Statesman's  Manual,  p.  54.)  and  objects, 
the  which  and  the  measures  for  the  attainment 
of  which  possess  my  good  wishes  and  have  had 
the  humble  tribute  of  my  public  advocation 
and  applause — I  am  here  alluding  to  the  Brit- 
ish and  Foreign  Bible  Society — may  yet  con- 
verge, as  to  the  point  now  in  question.  They 
may,  both  alike,  be  symptoms  of  the  same  pre- 
dominant disposition  to  that  Coalition-system 
in  Christianity,  for  the  expression  of  which 
Theologians  have  invented  or  appropriated 
the  term,  Syncretism:*  although  the  former 
may  be  an  ominous,  the  latter  an  auspicious 

*  Clementia  Evangelica  (writes  a  German  Theologian  of  the 
last  Century)  quasi  matron  a  habenda  est,  purioris  doctrines 
custos,  mitis  quidem,  at  sedula  tamen,  at  vigilans,  at  seducto- 
rum  impatiens.  Iste  vero  Syncretismus,  quern  Laodiceni 
apud  nos  tantopore  collaudant,  nusqum  a  me  nisi  meretrix 
audiet,  Fidei  vel  pigrai  vel  status  sui  ignarae  proles,  postea 
autem  indolis  secularis  genetrix,  et  quacum  nee  sincera  fides» 
nee  genuina  Caritas  commorari  feret. 

Translation. — The  true*  Gospel  Spirit  of  Toleration  we 
should  regard  as  a  Matron,  a  kind  and  gentle  guardian  indeed 
of  the  pure  Doctrine,  but  sedulous,  but  vigilant,  but  impatient 
of  Seducers.  This  Syncretism  on  the  contrary,  which  the 
Loadieeans  among  us  join  in  extolling  so  highly,  shall  no  where 


189 

symptom,  though  the  one  may  be  worse  from 
Bad,  while  the  other  is  an  instance  of  Good 
educed  from  Evil.  Nay,  I  will  dare  confess, 
that  I  know  not  how  to  think  otherwise,  when 
I  hear  a  Bishop  of  "an  established  Church  pub- 
licly exclaim  (and  not  viewing  it  as  a  lesser 
inconvenience  to  be  endured  for  the  attainment 
of  a  far  greater  good,  but  as  a  thing  desirable 
and  to  be  preferred^  for  its  own  sake)  JYo 
JYotes  !  JYo  Comment !  Distribute  the  Bible  and 
the  Bible  only  among  the  Poor  ! — a  declaration, 
which  from  any  lower  quarter  I  should  have 
been  under  the  temptation  of  attributing  either 
to  a  fanatical  notion  of  immediate  illumination 
superseding  the  necessity  of  human  teaching, 
or  to  an  ignorance  of  difficulties  which  (and 
what  more  worthy .?)  have  successfully  employ- 
ed all  the  learning,  sagacity,  and  unwearied 
labors  of  great  and  wise  men,  and  eminent 
servants  of  Christ,  during  all  the  ages  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  will  doubtless  continue   to   yield 

hear  from  me  other  or  better  name  than  that  of  Harlot,  the  off- 
spring of  a  Belief  either  slothful  or  ignorant  of  its  own  condi- 
tion, and  then  the  parent  of  Worlclly-mindedness,  and  with 
whom  therefore  neither  sincere  Faith  nor  genuine  Charity 
will  endure  to  associate. 


190 

new  fruits  of  Knowledge  and  Insight  to  a  long 
series  of  Followers.* 

Though  an  overbalance  of  the  commercial 
spirit  is  involved  in  the  deficiency  of  its  coun- 
terweights ;  yet  the  facts,  that  exemplify  the 
mode  and  extent  of  its  operation,  will  afford  a 
more  direct  and  satisfactory  kind  of  proof. 
And  first  I  am  to  speak  of  this  overbalance 
as  displayed  in  the  commercial  world  itself. 
But  as  this  is  the  first,  so  is  it  for  my  present 

*  I  am  well  aware,  that  by  these  open  avowals,  that  with 
much  to  honor  aud  praise  in  many,  there  is  something 
to  correct  in  all,  parties,  I  shall  provoke  many  enemies 
and  make  never  a  friend.  If  I  dared  abstain,  how  gladly 
should  I  have  so  done  !  Would  that  the  candid  part  of  my 
Judges  would  peruse  or  re-peruse  the  affecting  and  most  elo- 
quent introductory  pages  of  Milton's  Second  Book  of  his 
"  Reason  of  Church  Government  urged,  &c. ;"  and  give  me  the 
credit,  which  (my  conscience  bears  me  witness)  I  am  entitled 
to  claim,  for  all  the  moral  feelings  expressed  in  that  exquisite 
passage.  The  following  paragraph  I  extract  from  a  volume 
of  my  own,  which  has  been  long  printed,  for  the  greater  part, 
and  which  will,  I  trust,  now  be  soon  published. 

"  AH  my  experience  from  my  first  entrance  into  life  to  the 
present  hour  is  in  favour  of  the  warning  maxim,  that  the  man 
who  opposes  in  toto  the  political  or  religious  zealots  of  his 
age,  is  safer  from  their  obloquy  than  he  who  differs  from  them 
in  any  one  or  two  points  or  perhaps  only  in  degree.  By  thai 
transfer  of  the  feelings  of  private  life  into  the  discussions  of 
public  questions,  which  is  the   queen  bee  in  the  hive  of  party 


191 

purpose  the  least  important  point  of  view.  A 
portion  of  the  facts  belonging  to  this  division, 
of  the  subject  I  have  already  noticed,  p.  37. 
38 ;  and  for  the  remainder  let  the  following 
suffice  as  the  substitute  or  representative. 
The  moral  of  the  tale  I  leave  to  the  Reader's 
own  reflections.  Within  the  last  sixty  years 
or  perhaps  a  somewhat  larger  period,  (for  I 
do  not  pretend  to  any  nicety  of  dates,  and  the 
documents  are  of  easy  access)  there  have  oc- 
curred at  intervals    of  about  12  or  13   years 

fanaticism,  the  partizan  has  more  .sympathy  with  an  intem- 
perate opposite  than  with  a  moderate  Friend.  We  now  enjoy 
an  intermission  and  long  may  it  continue  !  In  addition  to  far 
higher  and  more  important  merits,  our  present  bible  societies, 
and  other  numerous  associations  for  national  or  charitable  ob- 
jects, may  serve  perhaps  to  carry  off  the  superfluous  activity  and 
fervor  of  stirring  minds  in  innocent  hj  perboles  and  the  bustle 
of  management.  But  the  poison-tree  is  not  dead,  though  the 
sap  may  for  a  season  have  subsided  to  its  roots.  At  least,  let  us 
not  be  lulled  into  such  a  notion  of  our  entire  security,  as  not 
to  keep  watch  and  ward,  even  on  our  best  feelings.  I  have 
seen  gross  intolerance  shewn  in  support  of  toleration  ;  sectari- 
an antipathy  most  obtrusively  displayed  in  the  promotion  of  an 
undistinguishing  comprehension  of  sects  ;  and  acts  of  cruelty 
(I  had  almost  said]  of  treachery,  committed  in  furtherance  of  an 
object  vitally  important  to  the  cause  of  humanity ;  and  all  this 
by  men  too  of  naturally  kind  dispositions  and  exemplary  con- 
duct."— Biographia  Literaria,  or  Sketches  of  my  Literary  Life, 
and  Opinions,  p.  190. 


192 

each,  certain  periodical   Revolutions  of  Cre- 
dit.    Yet  Revolution  is  not  the  precise  word. 
To  state  the  thing  as  it  is,  I  ought  to  have 
said,  certain  gradual  expansions  of  credit  end- 
ing in  sudden  contractions,  or,  with  equal  pro- 
priety, ascensions  to  a  certain  utmost  possible 
height,  which  has  been  different  in  each  suc- 
cessive instance  ;  but  in  every  instance  the  at- 
tainment of  this,  its  ne  plus  ultra,  has  been  in- 
stantly announced  by  a  rapid  series  of  explo- 
sions (in  mercantile  language,  a  Crash)  and  a 
consequent  precipitation  of  the  general   sys- 
tem.    For  a  short  time  this  Icarian*  Credit, 
or  rather  this  illegitimate  offspring  of  Confi- 
dence, to  which  it  stands  in  the  same  relation 
as  Phaethon  to  his  parent  god  in  the  old  fable, 
seems  to  lie  stunned  by  the  fall ;  but  soon  re- 

*  "  Icarus,  Son  of  Daedalus,  who  flying  with  his  father  from 
Crete  flew  too  high,  whereby  the  sun  melting  his  waxen  wings 
he  fell  into  the  Sea,  from  him  named  the  Icarian  Sea." — 
Ainsworth.  By  turning  back  to  the  word.  Daedalus,  the 
Reader  will  find  such  a  striking  and  ingenious  allegory  of 
the  Manufacturing  System,  its  connections  with  a  forced  or 
contraband  Trade,  and  its  succesful  evasions  of  what  has  been 
lately  called  the  continental  system,  as  may  induce  him  to  for- 
give the  triteness  and  school-boy  character  which  all  allusions 
of  this  sort  have  at  first  sight  for  a  sensible  mind. 


193 

covering,  again  it  strives  upward,   and  having 
once  more  regained  its  mid  region, 

thence  many  a  league, 


As  in  a  cloudy  chair,  ascending  rides 
Audacious ! 

Paradise  Lost. 

till  at  the  destined  zenith  of  its  vaporous  exal- 
tation, "  all  unawares,  fluttering  its  pennons 
vain,  plumb  down  it  drops  /"  Or  that  I  may 
descend  myself  to  the  "  cool  element  of  prose," 
Alarm  and  suspicion  gradually  diminish  into  a 
judicious  circumspectness ;  but  by  little  and 
little,  circumspection  gives  way  to  the  desire 
and  emulous  ambition  of  doing  business:  till 
Impatience  and  Incaution  on  one  side,  tempt- 
ing and  encouraging  headlong  Adventure, 
Want  of  principle,  and  Confederacies  of  false 
credit  on  the  other,  the  movements  of  Trade 
become  yearly  gayer  and  giddier,  and  end  at 
length  in  a  vortex  of  hopes  and  hazards,,  of 
blinding  passions  and  blind  practices,  which 
should  have  been  left  where  alone  they  ought 
ever  to  have  been  found,  among  the  wicked 
lunacies  of  the  Gaming  Table. 

I  am  not  ignorant  that  the  power  and  cir- 
17' 


194 

cumstantial  prosperity  of  the  Nation  has  been 
increasing  during  the  same  period,  with  an  ac- 
celerated force  unprecedented  in  any  country, 
the  population  of  which  bore  the  same  propor- 
tion to  its  productive  soil :  and  partly,  perhaps, 
even  in  consequence  of  this  system.  By  facili- 
tating the  means  of  enterprize  it  must  have  call- 
ed into  activity  a  multitude  of  enterprizing 
Individuals  and  a  variety  of  Talent  that  would 
otherwise  have  lain  dormant:  while  by  the 
same  ready  supply  of  excitements  to  Labor, 
together  with  its  materials  and  instruments, 
even  an  unsound  credit  has  been  able  within 
a  short  time  to*  substantiate  itself.     We  shall 

*  If  by  the  display  of  forged  Bank  Notes  a  Speculator  should 
establish  the  belief  of  his  being  a  Man  of  large  fortune,  and 
gain  a  temporary  confidence  in  his  own  paper-money  ;  and  if 
by  large  wages  so  paid  he  should  stimulate  a  number  of  indo- 
lent Highlanders  to  bring  a  tract  of  waste  land  into  profitable 
cultivation,  the  promissory  Notes  of  the  Owner,  which  derived 
their  first  value  from  a  delusion,  would  end  in  representing  a 
real  property,  and  this  their  own  product.  A  most  improbable 
ease  !  In  its  accidental  features,  I  reply,  rather  than  in  its  ea- 
sentials.  How  many  thousand  acres  have  been  reclaimed 
from  utter  unproductiveness,  how  many  doubled  in  value,  by 
the  agency  of  notes  issued  beyond  the  bona  fide  Capital  of  the 
Bank  or  Firm  that  circulated  them,  or  at  best  on  Capital  afloat 
and  insecure. 

In  this  section  of  the  present  address,  I  consider  myself  as 


195 

perhaps  be  told  too,  that  the  very  Evils  of  tFis 
System,  even  the  periodical  crash  itself,  are  to 
be  regarded  but  as  so  much  superfluous  steam 
ejected  by  the  Escape  Pipes  and  Safety  Valves 
of  a  self-regulating  Machine :  and  lastly,  that  in 
a  free  and  trading  country  all  things  find  their 
level. 

I  have  as  little  disposition  as  motive  to  recant 
the  principles,  which  in  many  forms  and  through 
various  channels  I  have  labored  to  propagate  ; 
but  there  is  surely  no  inconsistency  in  yielding 
all  due  honor  to  the  spirit  of  Trade,  and  yet 
charging  sundry  evils,  that  weaken  or  reverse 
its  blessings,  on  the  over-balance  of  that  spirit, 
taken  as  the  paramount  principle  of  action  in 
the  Nation  at  large.  Much  I  still  concede  to 
the  arguments  for  the  present  scheme  of  Things, 
as  adduced  in  the  preceding  paragraph :  but  I 
likewise  see,  and  always  have  seen,  much  that 
needs  winnowing.     Thus  instead  of  the  posi- 

having  redeemed  a  promise,  made  by  me  (November  1809) 
in  the  Essay  "  On  vulgar  errors  concerning  Taxation."  Hav- 
ing demonstrated  the  favourable  influences  of  the  system  "  on 
our  political  strength  and  circumstantial  prosperity,"  the 
friend  added  the  following  pledge :  "  What  have  been  its 
injurious  effects  on  our  Literature,  Morals,  and  Religious  Prin- 
pipleSj  I  shall  hereafter  develope  with  the  same  boldness." 


^  196 

tion,  that  all  things  find,  it  would  be  less  equi- 
vocal and  far  more  descriptive  of  the  fact  to 
say,  that  things  are  always  finding,  their  level : 
which  might  be  taken  as  the  paraphrase  or 
ironical  definition  of  a  storm,  but  would  be 
still  more  appropriate  to  the  Mosaic  Chaos, 
ere  its  brute  tendencies'  had  been  enlightened 
by  the  Word  (i.  e.  the  communicative  Intelli- 
gence) and  before  the  Spirit  of  Wisdom*  mov- 
ed on  the  level-finding  Waters.  But  Persons 
are  not  Things — -but  man  does  not  find  his 
level.  Neither  in  body  nor  in  soul  does  the 
Man  find  his  level !  After  a  hard  and  calam- 
itous season,  during  which  the  thousand  Wheels 
of  some  vast  manufactory  had  remained  silent 
as  a  frozen  water-fall,  be  it  that  plenty  has 
returned  and  that  Trade  has  once  more  be- 
come brisk  and  stirring :  go,  ask  the  overseer, 
and  question  the  parish  doctor,  whether  the 
workman's  health  and  temperance  with  the 
staid  and  respectful  Manners  best  taught  by 
the  inward  dignity  of  conscious  self-support, 

*  Uocfiia,  Wisdom,  (that  is,  Reason  in  Act  or  Energy)  was 
the  name  by  which  the  Christians  and  Christian  Writers  of  the 
three  first  Centuries  most  commonly  addressed  and  disting- 
uished the  Holy  Ghost. 


197 

have  found  their  level  again !  Alas !  I  have 
more  than  once  seen  a  group  of  children  in 
Dorsetshire,  during  the  heat  of  the  dog-days, 
each  with  its  little  shoulders  up  to  its  ears, 
and  its  chest  pinched  inward,  the  very  habit 
and  fixtures,  as  it  were,  that  had  been  impress- 
ed on  their  frames  by  the  former  ill-fed,  ill- 
clothed,  and  unfuelled  winters.  But  as  witt| 
the  Body,  so  or  still  worse  with  the  Mind. 
Nor  is  the  effect  confined  to  the  laboring  class- 
es, whom  by  an  ominous  but  too  appropriate 
a  change  in  our  phraseology  we  are  now  ac- 
customed to  call  the  Laboring  Poor.  I  cannot 
persuade  myself,  that  the  frequency  of  Failures 
with  all  the  disgraceful  secrets  of  Fraud  and 
Folly,  of  unprincipled  Vanity  in  expending  and 
desperate  Speculation  in  retrieving,  can  be 
familiarized  to  the  thoughts  and  experience  of 
Men,  as  matters  of  daily  occurrence,  without 
serious  injury  to  the  Moral  Sense :  more  espe- 
cially in  times  when  Bankruptcies  spread,  like 
a  fever,  at  once  contagious  and  epidemic ; 
swift  too  as  the  travel  of  an  Earthquake,  that 
with  one  and  the  same  chain  of  Shocks  opens 
the  ruinous  chasm  in  cities  that  have  an  ocean 
between  them ! — in  times,  when  the  Fate  flies 
17* 


198 

swifter  than  the  Fear,  and  yet  the  report,  that 
follows  the  flash,  has  a  ruin  of  its  own  and  ar- 
rives but  to  multiply  the  Blow ! — when  prince- 
ly capitals  are  often  but  the  Telegraphs  of 
distant  calamity :  and  still  worse,  when  no  man's 
treasure  is  safe  who  has  adopted  the  ordinary 
means  of  safety,  neither  the  high  or  the  hum- 
ble ;  when  the  Lord's  rents  and  the  Farmer's 
store,  entrusted  perhaps  but  as  yesterday,  are 
asked  after  at  closed  doors ! — but  worst  of  all,  in 
its  moral  influences  as  well  as  in  the  cruelty  of 
suffering,  when  the  old  Laborers'  Savings,  the 
precious  robberies  of  self-denial  from  every 
day's  comfort ;  when  the  Orphan's  Funds ;  the 
Widow's  Livelihood ;  the  fond  confiding  Sis- 
ter's humble  Fortune;  are  found  among  the 
victims  to  the  remorseless  mania  of  dishonest 
Speculation,  or  to  the  desperate  cowardice  of 
Embarrassment,  and  the  drunken  stupor  of  a 
usurious  Selfishness  that  for  a  few  months  re- 
spite dares  incur  a  debt  of  guilt  and  infamy,  for 
which  the  grave  itself  can  plead  no  statute  of 
limitation.  Name  to  me  any  Revolution  re- 
corded in  History,  that  was  not  followed  by  a 
depravation  of  the  national  Morals.  The  Ro- 
man character  during  the  Triumvirate,  and 


199 

under  Tiberius ;  the  reign  of  Charles  the  Sec- 
ond ;  and  Paris  at  the  present  moment ;  are  ob- 
vious instances.  What  is  the  main  cause? 
The  sense  of  Insecurity.  On  what  ground 
then  dare  we  hope,  that  with  the  same  accom- 
paniment Commercial  Revolutions  should  not 
produce  the  same  effect,  in  proportion  to  the 
extent  of  their  sphere  1 

But  these  Blessings — with  all  the  specific 
terms,  into  which  this  most  comprehensive 
Phrase  is  to  be  resolved  ?  Dare  we  unpack 
the  bales  and  cases  so  marked,  and  look  at  the 
articles,  one  by  one  ?  Increase  of  human  Life 
and  increase  of  the  means  of  Life  are,  it  is  true, 
reciprocally  cause  and  effect :  and  the  Genius 
of  Commerce  and  Manufactory  has  been  the 
cause  of  both  to  a  degree  that  may  well  excite 
our  wonder.  But  do  the  last  results  justify 
our  exultation  likewise  1  Human  Life,  alas ! 
is  but  the  malleable  Metal,  out  of  which  the 
thievish  Picklock,  the  Slave's  Collar,  and  the 
Assassin's  Stiletto  are  formed  as  well  as  the 
clearing  Axe,  the  feeding  Plough-share,  the 
defensive  Sword,  and  the  mechanic  Tool.  But 
the  subject  is  a  painful  one :  and  fortunately 
the  labors  of  others,  with  the  communications 


200 

of  medical  men  concerning  the  state  ot  the 
manufacturing  Poor,  have  rendered  it  unneces- 
sary. I  will  rather  (though  in  strict  method  it 
should,  perhaps,  be  reserved  for  the  following 
Head)  relate  a  speech  made  to  me  near  Fort 
Augustus,  as  I  was  travelling  on  foot  through 
the  Highlands  of  Scotland.  The  Speaker  was 
an  elderly  and  respectable  widow,  wrho  ex- 
pressed herself  with  that  simple  eloquence, 
which  strong  feeling  seldom  fails  to  call  forth 
in  humble  life,  but  especially  in  women.     She 

spoke  English,  as  indeed  most  Highlanders  do 
who  speak  it  all,  with  a  propriet}^  of  phrase  and 
a  discrimination  of  tone  and  emphasis  that  more 
than  compensated  for  the  scantiness  of  her  vo- 
cabulary. After  an  affecting  account  of  her 
own  wrongs  and  ejectment,  (which  however, 
she  said,  bore  with  comparative  lightness  on 
her,  who  had  had  saved  up  for  her  a  where- 
withal to  live,  and  was  blessed  with  a  son 
well  to  do  in  the  world),  she  made  a  move- 
ment with  her  hand  in  a  circle,  directing  my 
eye  meanwhile  to  various  objects  as  marking 
its  outline;  and  then  observed,  with  a  deep 
sigh  and  a  suppressed  and  slow  voice  which 
she  suddenly  raised  and  quickened  after  the 


201 

first  drop  or  cadence — Within  this  space — how- 
short  a  time  back !  there  lived  a  hundred  and 
seventy-three  persons :  and  now  there  is  only 
a  shepherd,  and  an  underling  or  two.  Yes, 
Sir  !  One  hundred  and  seventy-three  Christ- 
ian souls,  man,  woman,  boy,  girl,  and  babe ; 
and  in  almost  every  home  an  old  man  by  the 
fire-side,  who  would  tell  you  of  the  troubles, 
before  our  roads  were  made  ;  and  many  a  brave 
youth  among  them  who  loved  the  birth-place  of 
his  forefathers,  yet  would  swing  about  his 
broad- sword  and  want  but  a  word  to  march  off 
to  the  battles  over  sea ;  aye  Sir,  and  many  a 
good  lass,  who  had  a  respect  for  herself! 
Well !  but  they  are  gone,  and  with  them  the 
bristled  bear,*  and  the  pink  haver,f  and  the 
potatoe  plot  that  looked  as  gay  as  any  flower 
garden  with  its  blossoms !  I  sometimes  fancy, 
that  the  very  birds  are  gone,  all  but  the  crows 
and  the  gleads !  Well,  and  what  then  ?  In- 
stead of  us  all,  there  is  one  shepherd  man,  and 
it  may  be  a  pair  of  small  lads — and  a  many, 
many  sheep  !  And  do  you  think,  Sir !  that 
God  allows  of  such  proceedings  ? 

Some   days   before   this   conversation,   and 

*  A  species  of  Barley.  f  A  species  of  Oats, 


202 

while  I  was  on  the  shores  of  the  Loch  Ka- 
thern,*  I  had  heard  of  a  sad  counterpart  to  the 
widow's  tale,  and  told  with  a  far  fiercer  indig- 
nation, of  a  "  Laird  who  had  raised  a  company 
from  the  country  round  about,  for  the  love  that 
was  borne  to  his  name,  and  who  gained  high 
preferment  in  consequence :  and  that  it  was 
but  a  small  part  of  those  that  he  took  away 
whom  he  brought  back  again.  And  what  were 
the  thanks  which  the  folks  had  both  for  those 
that  came  back  with  him,  some  blind  and  more 
in  danger  of  blindness ;  and  for  those  that  had 
perished  in  the  hospitals,  and  for  those  that 
fell  in  battle,  fighting  before  or  beside  him  1 
Why,  that  their  fathers  were  all  turned  out  of 
their  farms  before  the  year  was  over,  and  sent 
to  wander  like  so  many  gipsies,  unless  they 
would  consent  to  shed  their  gray  hairs,  at  ten- 
pence  a  day,  over  the  new  canals.     Had  there 

*  The  Lake  so  widely  celebrated  since  then  by  a  Poet,  to 
whose  writings  a  larger  number  of  persons  have  owed  a  lar- 
ger portion  of  innocent,  and  heart-bettering  amusement,  than 
perhaps  to  any  favorite  of  the  Muses  recorded  in  English  lit- 
erature: while  the  most  learned  of  his  readers  must  feel  grate- 
ful for  the  mass  of  interesting  and  highly  instructive  informa- 
tion scattered  throughout  his  works,  in  which  respect  |3ov„ 
thkv  is  his  only  rival. 


203 

been  a  price  set  upon  his  head,  and  his  ene- 
mies had  been  coming  upon  him,  he  needed 
but  have  whistled,  and  a  hundred  brave  lads 
would  have  made  a  wall  of  flame  round  about 
him  with  the   flash    of  their    broad-swords! 

Now  if  the should  come  among  us,  as 

(it  is  said) they  will,  let  him  whistle  to  his  sheep 
and  see  if  they  will  fight  for  him  !"  The  fre- 
quency with  which  I  heard,  during  my  solitary 
walk  from  the  end  of  Loch- Lomond  to  Inver- 
ness, confident  expectations  of  the  kind  expres- 
sed in  his  concluding  words — nay,  far  too  often 
eager  hopes  mingled  with  vindictive  resolves — 
I  spoke  of  with  complaint  and  regret  to  an  el- 
derly man:  whom  by  his  dress  and  way  of 
speaking,  I  took  to  be  a  schoolmaster.  Long 
shall  I  recollect  his  reply :  "  0,  Sir,  it  kills  a 
man's  love  for  his  country,  the  hardships  of  life 
coming  by  change  and  with  injustice  !"  I  was 
sometime  afterwards  told  by  a  very  sensible 
person  who  had  studied  the  mysteries  of  politi- 
cal oeconomy,  and  was  therefore  entitled  to  be 
listened  to,  that  more  food  was  produced  in 
consequence  of  this  revolution,  that  the  mutton 
must  be  eat  somewhere,  and  what  difference 


204 

where  1  If  three  were  fed  at  Manchester  in- 
stead of  two  at  Glenco  or  the  Trossacs,  the 
balance  of  human  enjoyment  was  in  favor  of 
the  former.  I  have  passed  through  many  a 
manufacturing  town  since  then,  and  watched 
many  a  group  of  old  and  young,  male  and  fe- 
male, going  to,  or  returning  from,  many  a  fac- 
tory, but  I  could  never  yet  persuade  myself  to 
be  of  his  opinion.  Men,  I  still  think,  ought  to 
be  weighed  not  counted.  Their  worth  ought 
to  be  the  final  estimate  of  their  value. 

Among  the  occasions  and  minor  causes  of 
this  change  in  the  views  and  measures  of  our 
Land-owners,  and  as  being  itself  a  consequent 
on  that  system  of  credit,  the  outline  of  which 
was  given  in  a  preceding  page,  the  universal 
practice  of  enhancing  the  sale  price  of  every 
article  on  the  presumption  of  Bad  Debts,  is 
not  the  least  noticeable.  Nor,  if  we  reflect 
that  this  additional  per  centage  is  repeated  at 
each  intermediate  stage  of  its  elaboration  and 
distribution  from  the  Grower  or  Importer  to 
the  last  Retailer  inclusively,  will  it  appear  the 
least  operative.  Necessary,  and  therefore  jus- 
tifiable, as  this  plan  of  reprisal  by  anticipation 
may  be  in  the  case  of  each  individual  dealer, 


205 

yet  taken  collectively  and  without  reference  to 
persons,  the  plan  itself  would,  I  suspect,  startle 
an  unfamiliarized  conscience,  as  a  sort  of  non- 
descript Piracy,  not  promiscuous  in  its  exac- 
tions only  because  by  a  curious  anomaly  it 
grants  a  free  pass  to  the  offending  party.  Or 
if  the  Law  maxim,  volentibus  nulla  fit  injuria, 
is  applicable  in  this  case,  it  may  perhaps  be 
described  more  courteously  as  a  Benefit  Socie- 
ty of  all  the  careful  and  honest  men  in  the 
kingdom  to  pay  the  debts  of  the  dishonest  or 
improvident.  It  is  mentioned  here,  however, 
as  one  of  the  appendages  to  the  twin  para- 
mount causes,  the  Paper  Currency  and  the 
National  Debt,  and  for  the  sake  of  the  conjoint 
results.  Would  we  learn  what  these  results 
are  ?  What  they  have  been  in  the  higher,  and 
what  in  the  most  numerous,  class  of  society? 
Alas !  that  some  of  the  intermediate  rounds  in 
the  social  ladder  have  been  broken  and  not  re- 
placed, is  itself  one  of  these  results.  Retrace 
the  progress  of  things  from  1792  to  1813,  when 
the  tide  was  at  its  height,  and  then,  as  far  as 
its  rapidity  will  permit,  the  ebb  from  its  first 
turn  to  the  dead  low-water  mark  of  the  last 
quarter.  Then  see  whether  the  remainder 
18 


206 

may  not  be  generalized,  under  the  following 
heads.  Fluctuation  in  the  wages  of  labor,  al- 
ternate privation  and  excess  (not  in  all  at  the 
same  time,  but  successively  in  each)  conse- 
quent improvidence,  and  overall  discontent  and 
a  system  of  factious  confederacy — these  form 
the  history  of  the  mechanics  and  lower  ranks  of 
our  cities  and  towns.  In  the  country,  a  peas- 
antry sinking  into  pauperism,  step  forstep  with 
the  rise  of  the  farmer's  profits  and  indigencies. 
On  the  side  of  the  landlord  and  his  compeers, 
we  shall  find  the  presence  of  the  same  causes 
attested  by  answerable  effects.  Great  as 
"  their  almost  magical  effects"  *  on  the  increase 
of  prices  were  in  the  necessaries  of  life,  they 

*  During  the  composition  of  this  sheet  I  have  had,  and  avail- 
ed myself  of  the  opportunity  of  perusing  the  Report  of  the 
Board  of  Agriculture  for  the  year  1816.  The  numerous  reflec- 
tions, which  this  most  extraordinary  volume  excited  in  my 
mind,  I  cannot  even  touch  on,  in  this  closing  sheet  of  an  Ad- 
dress that  has  already  extended  far  beyond  my  original  pur- 
pose. But  had  I  perused  it  at  the  commencement,  I  should 
still  have  felt  it  my  duty  to  direct  the  main  force  of  my  animad- 
versions against  the  Demagogue  class  of  State  empirics.  I 
was  not  indeed,  ignorant  of  the  aid,  which  they  derived  from 
other  quarters : — nor  am  I  now  ashamed  of  not  having  antici- 
pated its  extent.  There  is,  however,  one  communication  (p. 
208  to  327)  from  Mr.  Mosely,  from  which,  with  the  abate- 


207 

were  still  greater,  disproportionally  greater,  in 
all  articles  of  shew  and  luxury.  With  few  ex- 
ceptions, it  soon  became  difficult,  and  at  length 
impracticable,  for  the  gentry  of  the  land,  for 
the  possessors  of  fixed  property  to  retain  the 
rank  of  their  ancestors,  or  their  own  former  es- 
tablishments, without  joining  in  the  general 
competition  under  the  influence  of  the  same 
trading  spirit.  Their  dependants  were  of 
course  either  selected  from,  or  driven  into,  the 
same  eddy  ;  while  the  temptation  of  obtaining 
more  than  the  legal  interest  for  their  principal 
became  more  and  more  strong  with  all  persons 
who,  neither  trading  nor  farming,  had  lived  on 
the  interest  of  their  fortunes.  It  was  in  this 
latter  class  that  the  rash,  and  too  frequently, 
the  unprincipled  projector  found  his  readiest 
dupes.  Had  we  but  the  secret  history  of  the 
building  speculations  only  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
metropolis,  too  many  of  its  pages  would  sup- 
ply an  afflicting  but  instructive  comment. 
That  both  here,  and  in  all  other  departments, 
this  increased  momentum  in  the  spirit  of  trade 

ment  only  of  the  passage  on  tythes,  I  cannot  withhold  my 
entire  admiration.  It  almost  redeems  the  remainder  of  the 
Report, 


208 

has  been  followed  by  results  of  the  most  desi- 
rable nature,  I  have  myself*,  exerted  my  best 
powers  to  evince,  at  a  period  when  to  present 
the  fairest  and  most  animating  features  of  the 
system,  and  to  prove  their  vast  and  charm-like 
influence  on  the  power  and  resources  of  the 
nation  appeared  a  duty  of  patriotism.  Nothing, 
however,  was  advanced  incompatible  with  the 
position,  which  even  then  I  did  not  conceal, 
and  which  from  the  same  sense  of  duty  I  am 
now  attempting  to  display ;  namely,  that  the 
extension  of  the  commercial  spirit  into  our  ag- 
ricultural system,  added  to  the  overbalance  of 
the  same  spirit,  even  within  its  own  sphere ; 
aggravated  by  the  operation  of  our  Revenue 
Laws ;  and  finally  reflected  in  the  habits,  and 
tendencies  of  the  Laboring  Classes ;  is  the 
ground- work   of  our  calamity,   and  the   main 

*  In  a  variety  of  articles  published  at  different  periods  in  the 
Morning  Post  and  Courier ;  but  with  most  success  in  the  Es- 
say, before  cited,  on  Vulgar  Errors  on  Taxation,  which  had 
the  advantage  of  being  transferred  almost  entire  to  the  columns 
of  a  daily  paper,  of  the  largest  circulation,  and  from  .thence,  in 
larger  or  smaller  extracts,  to  several  of  our  Provincial  Journals. 
It  was  likewise  reprinted  in  two  of  the  American  Federalist 
Papers :  and  a  translation  appeared,  I  have  been  told,  in  the 
Hamburgh  Correspondenten. 


209 

predisposing  cause,  without  which  the  late  oc- 
casions would  (some  of  them  not  have  existed, 
and  the  remainder)  not  have  produced  the 
present  distresses. 

That  Agriculture  requires  principles  essenti- 
ally different  from  those  of  Trade, — that  a  gen- 
tleman ought  not  to  regard  his  estate  as  a  mer- 
chant his  cargo,  or  a  shopkeeper  his  stock, — 
admits  of  an  easy  proof  from  the  different  ten- 
ure of  Landed  Property,*  and  from  the  purpo- 
ses of  Agriculture  itself,  which  ultimately  are 

*  The  veiy  idea  of  individual  or  private  property,  in  our  pre- 
sent  acceptation  of  the  term,  and  according  to  the  current  no^ 
tion  of  the  right  to  it,  was  originally  confined  to  moveable 
things :  and  the  more  moveable,  the  more  susceptible  of  the 
nature  of  property-  Proceeding  from  the  more  to  the  less  per- 
fect right;  we  may  bring  all  the  objects  of  an  independent 
ownership  under  five  heads : — viz.  1 .  Precious  stones,  and 
other  jewels  of  as  easy  transfer ;  2.  The  precious  metals,  and 
foreign  coin  taken  as  weight  of  metal ;  3.  Merchandize,  by 
virtue  of  the  contract  between  the  importer  and  the  sovereign 
in  whose  person  the  unity  and  integrity  of  the  common  wealth 
were  represented  ;  i.  e.  after  the  settled  price  had  been  paid  by 
the  former  for  the  permission  to  import,  and  received  by  the 
latter  under  the  further  obligation  of  protecting  the  same  ;  4, 
The  coin  of  the  Country  in  the  possession  of  the  natural  sub-i 
ject;  and  last  of  all,  and  in  certain  cases,  the  live  stock,  the^?e^ 
culium  apecus.  Hence,  the  minds  of  men  were  most  familiar 
with  the  idea  in  the  case  of  Jews  and  Aliens ;  till  gradually, 
the  privileges  attached  to  the  vicinity  of  the  Bishops  and  mitred. 

18* 


210 

the  same  as  those  of  the  State  of  which  it  is 
the  offspring.  (For  we  do  not  include  in  the 
name  of  Agriculture  the  cultivation  of  a  few 
vegetables  by  the  women  of  the  less  savage 
Hunter  Tribes.)  If  the  continuance  and  inde- 
pendence of  the  State  be  its  object,  the  final 
causes  of  the  State  must  be  its  final  causes. 
We  suppose  the  negative  ends  of  a  State  al- 
ready attained,  viz.  its  own  safety  by  means  of 
its  own  strength,  and  the  protection  of  person 
and  property  for  all  its  members,  there  will 
then  remain  its  positive  ends  : — 1.  To  make 
the  means  of  subsistence  more  easy  to  each 
individual.  2.  To  secure  to  each  of  its  mem- 
bers the  hope*  of  bettering  his  own  condi- 
tion or  that  of  his  children.    3.    The  develope- 

Abbots  prepared  an  asylum  for  the  fugitive  Vassal  and  the  op- 
pressed Frankling,  and  thus  laid  the  first  foundations  of  a 
fourth  class  of  freemen,  that  of  Citizens  and  Burghers.  To 
the  Feudal  system  we  owe  the  forms,  to  the  Church  the  sub- 
stance of  our  liberty.  As  comment  take,  first,  the  origin  of 
towns  and  cities ;  next  the  holy  war-waged  against  slavery  and 
villenage,  and  with  such  success  that  the  law  had  barely  to 
sanction  an  opus  jam  consum 

[This  note  is  left  imperfect  in  the  London  copy.  Am.  Pub.] 

*  The  Civilized  man  gives  up  those  stimulants  of  Hope  and 
Fear,  the  mixture  or  alternation  of  which  constitutes  the  chief 
charm  of  the  savage  life :  and  yet  his  Maker  has  distinguished 


211 

ment  of  those  faculties  which  are  essential  to  his 
Humanity,  i.  e.  to  his  rational  and  moral  Being. 
Under  the  last  head  we  do  not  mean  those  de- 
grees of  intellectual  cultivation  which  distin- 
guish man  from  man  in  the  same  civilized 
society,  but  those  only  that  raise  the  civilized 
man  above  the  Barbarian,  the  Savage,  and  the 
Animal.  We  require,  however,  on  the  part  of 
the  State,  in  behalf  of  all  its  members,  not  only 
the  outward  means  of  knowing  their  essential 
duties  and  dignities  as  men  and  free  men,  but 
likewise,  and  more  especially,  the  discourage- 
ment of  all  such  Tenures  and  Relations  as  must 
in  the  very  nature  of  things  render  this  knowl- 
edge inert,  and  cause  the  good  seed  to  perish 
as  it  falls.  Such  at  least  is  the  appointed  Aim 
of  a  State  :  and  at  whatever  distance  from  the 
ideal  Mark  the  existing  circumstances  of  a  na- 
tion may  unhappily  place  the  actual  statesman, 

him  from  the  Brute  that  perishes,  by  making  Hope  an  instinct 
of  his  nature  and  an  indispensable  condition  of  his  moral  and 
intellectual  progression.  But  a  natural  instinct  constitutes  a 
natural'  right,  as  far  as  its  gratification  is  compatible  with  the 
equal  rights  of  others.  Hence  our  ancestors  classed  those 
who  were  incapable  of  altering  their  condition  from  that  of 
their  parents,  as  Bondsmen  or  Villains,  however  advantageous- 
ly they  might  otherwise  be  situated. 


212 

still  every  movement  ought  to  be  in  this  direc- 
tion. But  the  negative  merit  of  not  forwarding 
— but  the  exemption  from  the  crime  of  neces- 
sitating— the  debasement  and  virtual  disfran- 
chisement of  any  class  of  the  community,  may 
be  demanded  of  every  State  under  all  circum- 
stances :  and  the  Government,  that  pleads  dif- 
ficulties in  repulse  or  demur  of  this  claim, 
impeaches  its  own  wisdom  and  fortitude.  But 
as  the  specific  ends  of  Agriculture  are  the  main- 
tenance, strength,  and  security  of  the  State, 
so  (we  repeat)  must  its  ultimate  ends  be  the 
same  as  those  of  the  State :  even  as  the  ulti- 
mate end  of  the  spring  and  wheels  of  a  watch 
must  be  the  same  as  that  of  the  watch.  Yet 
least  of  all  things  dare  we  overlook  or  conceal, 
that  morally  and  with  respect  to  the  character 
and  conscience  of  the  Individuals,  the  Blame 
of  unfaithful  Stewardship  is  aggravated,  in  pro- 
portion as  the  Difficulties  are  less,  and  the 
consequences,  lying  within  a  narrower  field  of 
vision,  are  more  evident  and  affecting.  An 
injurious  system,  the  connivance  at  which  we 
scarcely  dare  more  than  regret  in  the  Cabinet 
or  Senate  of  an  Empire,  may  justify  an  earnest 
reprobation  in  the  management  of  private  Es- 


213 

tates :  provided  always,  that  the  System  only 
be  denounced,  and  the  pleadings  confined  to 
the  Court  of  Conscience.  For  from  this  court 
only  can  the  redress  be  awarded.  All  Reform 
or  Innovation,  not  won  from  the  free  Agent  by 
the  presentation  of  juster  Views  and  nobler  In- 
terests, and  that  does  not  leave  the  merit  of 
having  effected  it  sacred  to  the  individual  pro- 
prietor, it  were  folly  to  propose,  and  worse 
than  folly  to  attempt.  Madmen  only  would 
dream  of  digging  or  blowing  up  the  foundation 
of  a  House  in  order  to  employ  the  materials  in 
repairing  the  walls.  Nothing  more  dare  be 
asked  of  the  State,  no  other  duty  is  imposed 
on  it,  than  to  withhold  or  retract  all  extrinsic 
and  artificial  aids  to  an  injurious  system ;  or 
at  the  utmost  to  invalidate  in  extreme  cases 
such  claims  as  have  arisen  indirectly  from  the 
letter  or  unforeseen  operations  of  particular 
Statutes  :  claims  that  instead  of  being  contain- 
ed in  the  Rights  of  its  proprietary  Trustees 
are  incroachments  on  its  own  Rights,  and  a  de- 
structive Trespass  on  a  part  of  its  own  inalien- 
able and  untransferable  Property — I  mean  the 
health,  strength,  honesty,  and  filial  love  of  its 
children, 


214 

It  would  border  on  an  affront  to  the  under- 
standings of  our  Landed  Interest,  were  I  to 
explain  in  detail  what  the  plan  and  conduct 
would  be  of  a  gentleman  ;*  if,  as  the  result  of 
his  own  free  conviction  the  marketable  produce 
of  his  Estates  were  made  a  subordinate  consid- 
eration to  the  living  and  moral  growth  that  is 
to  remain  on  the  land.  I  mean  a  healthful,  cal- 
lous-handed but  high-and-warm-hearted  Ten- 
antry, twice  the  number  of  the  present  landless, 
parish-paid  Laborers,  and  ready  to  march  off 
at  the  first  call  ol  their  country  with  a  Son  of 
the  House  at  their  head,  because  under  no 
apprehension  of  being  (forgive  the  lowness  of 
the  expression)  marched  off  at  the  whisper  of 
a  Land-taster !  If  the  admitted  rule,  the  para- 
mount #e//'-commandment,  were  comprized  in 

*  Or,  (to  put  the  question  more  justly  as  well  as  more  can- 
didly) of  the  Land-owners  collectively — for  who  is  not  aware 
of  the  facilities  that  accompany  a  conformity  with  the  general 
practice,  or  of  the  numerous  hindrances  that  retard,  and  the 
final  imperfection  that  commonly  awaits  a  deviation  from  it  ? 
On  the  distinction  mentioned,  p.  216,  between  Things  and 
Persons,  all  law  human  and  divine  is  grounded.  It  consists  in 
this :  that  the  former  may  be  used,  as  mere  means  ;  but  the  lat- 
ter dare  not  be  employed  as  the  means  to  an  end  without  di- 
rectly or  indirectly  sharing  in  that  end. 

See  Friend,  American  Edition. 


215 

the  fixed  resolve — -I  will  improve  my  Estate 
to  the  utmost ;  and  my  rent-roll  I  will  raise  as 
much  as,  but  no  more  than,  is  compatible  with 
the  three  great  ends  (before  enumerated)  which 
being  those  of  my  country  must  be  mine  in- 
clusively !  This,  I  repeat,  it  would  be  more 
than  superfluous  to  particularize.  It  is  a  pro- 
blem, the  solution  of  which  may  be  safely  en- 
trusted to  the  common  sense  of  every  one  who 
has  the  hardihood  to  ask  himself  the  question. 
But  how  encouraging  even  the  approximations 
to  such  a  system,  of  what  fair  promise  the  few 
fragmentary  samples  are,  may  be  seen  in  the 
Report  of  the  Board  of  Agriculture  for  1816, 
p.  11,  from  the  Earl  of  Winch  elsea's  communi- 
cation, in  every  paragraph  of  which  Wisdom 
seems  to  address  us  in  behalf  of  Goodness. 

But  the  plan  of  my  argument  requires  the 
reverse  of  this  picture.  I  am  to  ask  what  the 
results  would  be,  on  the  supposition,  that  Ag- 
riculture is  carried  on  in  the  spirit  of  Trade ; 
and  if  the  necessary  answer  coincide  with  the 
known  general  practice,  to  shew  the  connec- 
tion of  the  consequences  with  the  present  state 
of  distress  and  uneasiness.  In  Trade,  from  its 
most  innocent  form  to  the  abomination  of  the 


216 

African  commerce  nominally  abolished  after  a 
hard-fought  battle  of  twenty  years,  no  distinc- 
tion is  or  can  be  acknowledged  between  Things 
and  Persons.  If  the  latter  are  part  of  the  con- 
cern, they  come  under  the  denomination  of  the 
former.  Two  objects  only  can  be  proposed  in 
the  management  of  an  Estate,  considered  as  a 
Stock  in  Trade — first,  that  the  Returns  should 
be  the  largest,  quickest,  and  securest  possible ; 
and  secondly,  with  the  least  out-goings  in  the 
providing,  over-looking,  and  collecting  the  same 
— whether  it  be  expenditure  of  money  paid  for 
other  mens'  time  and  attention,  or  of  the  trades- 
man's own,  which  are  to  him  money's  worth, 
makes  no  difference  in  the  argument.  Ami 
disposing  of  a  bale  of  goods  ?  The  man  whom 
I  most  love  and  esteem  must  yield  to  the  stran- 
ger that  outbids  him ;  or  if  it  be  sold  on  credit, 
the  highest  price,  with  equal  security,  must 
have  the  preference.  I  may  fill  up  the  defi- 
ciency of  my  friend's  offer  by  a  private  gift,  or 
loan ;  but  as  a  tradesman,  I  am  bound  to  re- 
gard honesty  and  established  character  them- 
selves, as  things,  as  securities,  for  which  the 
known  unprincipled  dealer  may  offer  an  un- 
exceptionable substitute.   Add  to  this,  that  the 


217 

security  being  equal,  I  shall  prefer,  even  at  a 
considerable  abatement  of  price,  the  man  who 
will  take  a  thousand  chests  or  bales  at  once, 
to  twenty  who  can  pledge  themselves  only  for 
fifty  each.  For  I  do  not  seek  trouble  for  its 
own  sake  ;  but  among  other  advantages  I  seek 
wealth  for  the  sake  of  freeing  myself  more  and 
more  from  the  necessity  of  taking  trouble  in 
order  to  attain  it.  The  personal  worth  of  those, 
whom  I  benefit  in  the  course  of  the  Process,  or 
whether  the  persons  are  really  benefited  or  no, 
is  no  concern  of  mine.  The  Market  and  the 
Shop  are  open  to  all.  To  introduce  any  other 
principle  in  Trade,  but  that  of  obtaining  the 
highest  price  with  adequate  security  for  Arti- 
cles fairly  described,  would  be  tantamount  to 
the  position,  that  Trade  ought  not  to  exist.  If 
this  be  admitted,  then  what  as  a  Tradesman  I 
cannot  do,  it  cannot  be  my  Duty,  as  a  Trades- 
man, to  attempt :  and  the  only  remaining  ques- 
tion in  reason  or  morality  is — what  are  the 
proper  objects  of  Trade.  If  my  Estate  be  such, 
my  plan  must  be  to  make  the  most  of  it,  as  I 
would  of  any  other  mode  of  Capital.  As  my 
Rents  will  ultimately  depend  on  the  quantity 
and  value  of  the  Produce  raised  and  brought 
19 


218 

into  the  best  market  from  my  Land,  I  will  en- 
trust the  latter  to  those  who  bidding  the  most 
have  the  largest  Capital  to  employ  on  it :  and 
this  I  cannot  effect  but  by  dividing  it  into  the 
fewest  Tenures,  as  none  but  extensive  Farms 
will  be  an  object  to  men  of  extensive  capital 
and  enterprizing  minds.  I  must  prefer  this 
system  likewise  for  my  own  ease  and  security. 
The  Farmer  is  of  course  actuated  by  the  same 
motives,  as  the  Landlord :  and,  provided  they 
are  both  faithful  to  their  engagements,  the  ob- 
jects of  both  will  be:  1.  the  utmost  Produce 
that  can  be  raised  without  injuring  the  estate ; 
2.  with  the  least  possible  consumption  of  the 
Produce  on  the  Estate  itself;  3.  at  the  lowest 
wages ;  and  4.  with  the  substitution  of  machine- 
ry for  human  labor  where  ever  the  former  will 
cost  less  and  do  the  same  work.  What  are  the 
modest  remedies  proposed  by  the  majority  of 
correspondents  in  the  last  Report  of  the  Board 
of  Agriculture  ?  Let  measures  be  taken,  that 
rents,  taxes,  and  wages  be  lowered,  and  the 
Markets  raised  !  A  great  calamity  has  befall- 
en us,  from  importation,  the  lessened  purchases 
of  Government,  and  "  the  evil  of  a  superabundant 
Harvest" — of  which  we  deem  ourselves  the 


219 

more  entitled  to  complain,  because  "we  had 
been  long  making  112  shillings  per  quarter  of 
our  Corn,"  and  of  all  other  articles  in  propor- 
tion. As  the  best  remedies  for  this  calamity, 
we  propose  that  we  should  pay  less  to  our 
Landlords,  less  to  our  Laborers,  nothing  to  our 
Clergyman,  and  either  nothing  or  very  little  to 
the  maintenance  of  the  .Government  and  of  the 
Poor;  but  that  we  should  sell  at  our  former 
prices  to  the  Consumer ! — In  almost  every  page 
we  find  deprecations  of  the  Poor  Laws :  and  I 
hold  it  impossible  to  exaggerate  their  pernicious 
tendency  and  consequences.  But  let  it  not 
be  forgotten,  that  in  agricultural  districts  three- 
forths  of  the  Poors'  Rates  are  paid  to  healthy, 
robust,  and  (O  sorrow  and  shame!)  industri- 
ous, hard-working  Paupers-  in  lieu  of  Wages 
— (for  men  cannot  at  once  work  and  starve  :) 
and  therefore  if  there  are  twenty  House-keep- 
ers in  the  Parish,  who  are  not  holders  of  Land, 
their  contributions  are  so  much  Bounty  Money 
to  the  latter.  But  the  Poor  Laws  form  a  sub- 
ject, which  I  should  not  undertake  without 
trembling,  had  I  the  space  of  a  whole  volume 
to  allot  to  it.  Suffice,  that  this  enormous  mis- 
chief is  undeniably  the  offspring  of  the  Com- 


220 

mercial  System.  In  the  only  plausible  Work, 
that  I  have  seen,  in  favor  of  our  Poor  Laws  on 
the  present  plan,  the  Defence  is  grounded: 
first,  on  the  expediency  of  having  Labor  cheap, 
and  Estates  let  out  in.  the  fewest  possible  por- 
tions— in  other  words,  of  large  Farms  and  low 
Wages — each  as  indispensable  to  the  other, 
and  both  conjointly  as  the  only  means  of  draw- 
ing Capital  to  the  Land,  by  which  alone  the 
largest  Surplus  is  attainable  for  the  State :  that 
is,  for  the  Market,  or  in  order  that  the  smallest 
possible  proportion  of  the  largest  possible  Pro- 
duce may  be  consumed  by  the  Raisers  and 
their  families  !  Secondly,  on  the  impossibility 
of  supplying,  as  we  have  supplied,  all  the 
countries  of  the  civilized  World  (India  perhaps 
and  China  excepted)  and  of  underselling  them 
even  in  their  own  markets,  if  our  working 
Manufactures  were  not  secured  by  the  State 
against  the  worst  consequences  of  those  fail- 
ures, stagnations,  and  transfers,  to  which  the 
different  branches  of  Trade  are  exposed,  in  a 
greater  or  less  degree,  beyond  all  human  pre- 
vention ;  or  if  the  Master  Manufacturers  were 
compelled  to  give  previous  security  lor  the 
maintenance  of  those  whom  they  had,  by  the 


221 

known  Law  of  human  Increase,  virtually  called 
into  existence. 

Let  me  not  be  misunderstood.  I  do  not 
myeslf  admit  this  impossibility.  I  have  already 
denied,  and  I  now  repeat  the  denial,  that  these 
are  necessary  consequences  of  our  extended 
Commerce.  On  the  contrary,  I  feel  assured 
that  the  Spirit  of  Commerce  is  itself  capable 
of  being  at  once  counteracted  and  enlightened 
by  the  Spirit  of  the  State,  to  the  advantage  of 
both.  But  I  do  assert,  that  they  are  necessa- 
ry consequences  of  the  Commercial  Spirit  un- 
counteracted  and  sm-enlightened,  wherever 
Trade  has  been  carried  to  so  vast  an  extent  as 
it  has  in  England.  I  assert  too,  historically 
and  as  matter  of  fact,  that  they  have  been  the 
consequence  of  our  commercial  system.  The 
laws  of  Lycurgus,  like  those  of  the  inspired  He- 
brew Legislator,  were  anticommercial :  those 
of  Solon  and  Numa  were  at  least  uncommer- 
cial. Now  I  ask  myself,  what  the  impression 
would  have  been  on  the  Senate  of  the  Roman 
or  of  the  Athenian  Republic,  if  the  following 
proposal  had  been  made  to  them  and  introdu- 
ced by  the  following  preamble.  "  Conscript 
Fathers,  (or  Senators  of  Athens !)  it  is  well 
19* 


222 

known  to  you,  that  circumstances  being  the 
same  and  the  time  allowed  proportional,  the 
human  animal  may  be  made  to  multiply  as  ea- 
sily, and  at  as  small  an  expence,  as  your  sheep 
or  swine  :  which  is  meant,  perhaps,  in  the  fic- 
tion of  our  philosophers,  that  Souls  are  out  of 
all  proportion  more  numerous  than  the  Bodies, 
in  which  they  can  subsist  and  be  manifested. 
It  is  likewise  known  to  you,  Fathers !  that 
though  in  various  States  various  checks  have 
been  ordained  to  prevent  this  increase  of  births 
from  becoming  such  as  should  frustrate  or 
greatly  endanger  the  ends  for  Avhich  freemen 
are  born  ;  yet  the  most  efficient  limit  must  be 
sought  for  in  the  moral  and  intellectual  prerog- 
atives of  men,  in  their  foresight,  in  their  habit- 
uation to  the  comforts  and  decencies  of  society, 
in  the  pride  of  independence  ;  but  above  all  in 
the  hope  that  enables  men  to  withstand  the 
tyranny  of  the  present  impulse,  and  in  their 
expectation  of  honor  or  discredit  from  the  rank, 
character,  and  condition  of  their  children.  Now 
there  are  proposed  to  us  the  speedy  means  of 
at  once  increasing  the  number  of  the  rich,  the 
wealth  of  those  that  are  already  such,  and  the 
revenues  of  the  State  :  and  the  latter,  Fathers  ! 


223 

to  so  vast  an  amount,  that  we  shall  be  able  to 
pay  not  only  our  own  soldiers  but  those  of  the 
monarchs  whom  we  may  thus  induce  to  become 
our  Allies.  But  for  this  it  will  be  requisite  and 
indispensable  that  all  men  of  enterprize  and 
sufficiency  among  us  should  be  permitted,  with- 
out restraint,  to  encourage,  and  virtually  to  oc- 
casion, the  birth  of  many  myriads  of  free  citi- 
zens, who  from  their  childhood  are  to  be  amas- 
sed in  clusters  and  employed  as  parts  of  a 
mighty  system  of  machinery.  While  ail  things 
prove  answerable  to  the  schemes  and  wishes 
of  these  enterprisers,  the  Citizens  thus  raised 
and  thus  employed  by  them  will  find  an  ample 
maintenance,  except  in  such  instances  where 
the  individual  may  have  rendered  himself  use- 
less by  the  effects  of  his  own  vices.  It  dare 
not,  however,  be  disguised  from  you,  that  the 
nature  of  the  employments  and  the  circumstan- 
ces to  which  these  citizens  will  be  exposed, 
will  often  greatly  tend  to  render  them  intem- 
perate, diseased,  and  restless.  Nor  has  it  been 
yet  made  a  part  of  the  proposal,  that  the  em- 
ployers should  be  under  any  bond  to  counter- 
act such  injurious  circumstances  by  education, 
discipline,  or  other  efficient  regulations.     Still 


224 

less  may  it  be  withheld  from  your  knowledge, 
O  Fathers  of  the  State,  that  should  events 
hereafter  prove  hostile  to  all  or  to  any  branch 
of  these  speculations,  to  many  or  to  any  one 
of  the  number  that  shall  have  devoted  their 
wealth  to  the  realization  of  the  same — and  the 
light,  in  which  alone  they  can  thrive,  is  confes- 
sedly subject  to  partial  and  even  to  total  eclip- 
ses, which  there  are  no  means  of  precisely  fore- 
telling !  the  guardian  planets,  to  whose  conjunc- 
tion their  success  is  fatally  linked,  will  at  un- 
certain periods,  for  a  longer  or  shorter  time, 
act  in  malignant  oppositions  ! — Then,  Fathers, 
the  Principals  are  to  shift  for  themselves, 
and  leave  the  disposal  of  the  calamitous,  and 
therefore  too  probably  turbulent,  multitude, 
now  unemployed  and  useless,  to  the  mercy  of 
the  community,  and  the  solicitude  of  the  State : 
or  else  to  famine,  violence,  and  the  vengeance 
of  the  Laws !" 

If,  on  the  maxims  of  ancient  prudence,  on 
the  one  hand  not  enlightened,  on  the  other  not 
dazzled  by  the  principles  of  Trade,  the  imme- 
diate answer  would  have  been  : — "We  should 
deem  it  danger  and  detriment,  were  we  to  per- 
mit so  indefinite  and  improvident  increase  even 


225 

of  our  Slaves  and  Helots  :  in  the  case  of  free 
Citizens,  our  countrymen,  who  are  to  swear  to 
the  same  laws,  and  worship  at  the  same  altars, 
it  were  profanation !  May  the  Gods  avert  the 
Omen  !" — If  this,  I  say,  would  have  been  their 
rescript,  it  may  be  safely  concluded,  that  the 
connivance  at  the  same  scheme,  much  more 
that  the  direct  encouragement  of  it,  must  be 
attributed  to  that  spirit  which  the  ancients  did 
not  recognize,  namely,  the  Spirit  of  Commerce. 
But  we  have  shewn,  that  the  same  system 
has  gradually  taken  possession  of  our  agricul- 
ture. What  have  been  the  results  ?  For  him 
who  is  either  unable  or  unwilling  to  deduce 
the  whole  truth  from  the  portion  of  it  revealed 
in  the  following  extract  from  Lord  Winchel- 
sea's  Report,  whatever  I  could  have  added 
would  have  been  equally  in  vain.  His  Lord- 
ship speaking  of  the  causes  which  oppose  all 
attempts  to  better  the  Laborers  condition,  men- 
tions, as  one  great  cause,  the  dislike  the  gen- 
erality of  Farmers  have  to  seeing  the  Laborers 
rent  any  land.  Perhaps,  (he  continues)  "  one 
of  the  reasons  for  their  disliking  this  is,  that  the 
land,  if  not  occupied  by  the  laborers,  would 
fall  to  their  own  share ;  and  another  I  am  afraid 


226 

is,  that  they  rather  wish  to  have  the  laborers 
more  dependant  upon  them  ;  for  which  reasons 
thej  are  always  desirous  of  hiring  the  house 
and  land  occupied  by  a  laborer,  under  pretence, 
that  by  that  m  ^ans  the  landlord  will  be  secure 
of  his  rent,  and  that  they  will  keep  the  house 
in  repair.  This  the  agents  of  estates  are  too 
apt  to  give  into,  as  they  find  it  much  less  trouble 
to  meet  six  than  sixty  tenants  at  a  rent-day, 
and  by  this  means  avoid  the  being  sometimes 
obliged  to  hear  the  wants  and  complaints  of 
the  poor.  All  parties  therefore  join  in  pursuad- 
ing  the  landlord,  who  it  is  natural  to  suppose 
(unless  he  has  time  and  inclination  to  investi- 
gate the  matter  very  closely)  will  agree  to  this 
their  plan,  from  the  manner  in  which  it  comes 
recommended  to  him  :  and  it  is  in  this  manner 
that  the  laborers  have  been  dispossessed  of  their 
cow-pastures  in  various  parts  of  the  midland 
counties.  The  moment  the  farmer  obtains  his 
wish,  he  takes  every  particle  of  the  land  to 
himself,  and  re-lets  the  house  to  the  laborer, 
who  by  this  means  is  rendered  miserable ;  the 
Poor  Rate  increased  ;  the  value  of  the  Estate 
to  the  Landowner  diminished  ;  and  the  house 
suffered  to  go  to  decay;    which   once  fallen 


227 

the  tenant  will  never  rebuild,  but  the  landlord 
must,  at  a  considerable  expence.  Whoever 
travels  through  the  midland  counties,  and  will 
take  the  trouble  of  enquiring,  will  generally  re- 
ceive for  an  answer,  that  formerly  there  were 
a  great  many  cottagers  who  kept  cows,  but  that 
the  land  is  now  thrown  to  the  farmers  ;  and  if 
he  enquires  still  farther,  he  will  find  that  in 
those  parishes  the  poors'  rates  have  increased 
in  an  amazing  degree,  more  than  according  to 
the  average  rise  throughout  England." — In 
confirmation  of  his  Lordship's  statement  I  find 
in  the  Agricultural  Reports,  that  the  county,  in 
which  I  read  of  nothing  but  farms  of  1000, 
1500,  2000,  and  2500  acres,  is  likewise  that 
in  which  the  poor  rates  are  most  numerous,  the 
distresses  of  the  poor  most  grievous,  and  the 
prevalence  of  revolutionary  principles  the  most 
alarming.  But  if  we  consider  the  subject  on 
the  largest  scale  and  nationally,  the  consequen- 
ces are,  that  the  most  important  rounds  in  the 
social  ladder  are  broken,  and  the  Hope,  which 
above  all  other  things  distinguishes  the  free 
man  from  the  slave,  is  extinguished.  The  peas- 
antry therefore  are  eager  to  have  their  chil- 
dren add  as  early  as  possible  to  their  wretched 


228 

pittances,  by  letting  them  out  to  manufactories ; 
while  the  youths  take  every  opportunity  of  es- 
caping to  towns  and  cities.  And  if  I  were 
questioned,  as  to  my  opinion  respecting  the  ul- 
timate cause  of  our  liability  to  distresses  like  the 
present,  the  cause  of  what  has  been  called  a  vi- 
cious (i.  e.  excessive)  population  with  all  the  fu- 
ries that  follow  in  its  train — in  short,  of  the  state 
of  things  so  remote  from  the  simplicity  of  na- 
ture that  we  have  almost  deprived  Heaven  it- 
self of  the  power  of  blessing  us  ;  a  state  in 
which,  without  absurdity,  a  superabundant  Har- 
vest can  be  complained  of  as  an  evil,  and  the 
recurrence  of  the  same  a  ruinous  calamity — I 
should  not  hesitate  to  answer— the  vast  and 
disproportionate  number  oj  men  who  are  to  be 
fed  from  the  produce  of  the  fields,  on  which  they 
do  not  labor. 

What  then  is  the  remedy  1  Who  the  phy- 
sicians 1  The  reply  may  be  anticipated.  An 
evil,  which  has  come  on  gradually,  and  in  the 
growth  of  which  all  men  have  more  or  less 
conspired,  cannot  be  removed  otherwise  than 
gradually,  and  by  the  joint  efforts  of  all.  If  we 
are  a  christian  nation,  we  must  learn  to  act  na- 
tionally as  well  as  individually,  as  Christians. 


229 

We  must  remove  half-truths,  the  most  danger- 
ous of  errors  (as  those  of  the  poor  visionaries 
called  Spenceans)  by  the  whole  Truth.  The 
Government  is  employed  already  in  retrench- 
ments ;  but  he  who  expects  immediate  relief 
from  these,  or  who  does  not  even  know  that  if 
they  do  any  thing  at  all,  they  must  for  the  time 
tend -to  aggravate  the  distress,  cannot  have 
studied  the  operation  of  public  expenditure. 

I  am  persuaded  that  more  good  would  be 
done,  not  only  ultimate  and  permanent,  but 
immediate,  good,  by  the  abolition  of  the  Lotte- 
ries accompanied  with  a  public  and  parliamenta- 
ry declaration  or  the  moral  and  religious  grounds 
that  had  determined  the  Legislature  to  this  act ; 
of  their  humble  confidence  in  the  blessing  of 
God  on  the  measure  ;  and  of  their  hopes  that 
this  sacrifice  to  principle,  as  being  more  exem- 
plary from  the  present  pressure  on  the  Re- 
venue of  the  State,  would  be  the  more  effective 
in  restoring  confidence  between  man  and  man 
— I  am  deeply  convinced,  that  more  sterling 
and  visible  benefits  would  be  derived  from  this 
one  solemn  proof  and  pledge  of  moral  fortitude 
and  national  faith,  than  from  retrenchments  to 
a  tenfold  greater  amount.    Still  more,  if  our 

20 


230 

Legislators  should  pledge  themselves  at  the 
same  time,  that  they  would  hereafter  take 
council  for  the  gradual  removal  or  counterac- 
tion of  all  similar  encouragements  and  tempta- 
tions to  Vice  and  Folly,  that  had  alas !  been 
tolerated  hitherto,  as  the  easiest  way  of  sup- 
plying the  exchequer.  And  truly,  the  financial 
motives  would  be  strong  indeed,  if  the  Revenue 
Laws  in  question  were  but  half  as  productive 
of  money  to  the  State  as  they  are  of  guilt  and 
wretchedness  to  the  people. 

Our  manufacturers  must  consent  to  regula- 
tions ;  our  gentry  must  concern  themselves  in 
the  education  as  well  as  in  the  instruction  of 
their  natural  clients  and  dependents,  must  re- 
gard their  estates  as  secured  indeed  from  all 
human  interference  by  every  principle  of  law, 
and  policy,  but  yet  as  offices  of  trust,  with  du- 
ties to  be  performed,  in  the  sight  of  God  and 
their  Country.  Let  us  become  a  better  peo- 
ple, and  the  reform  of  all  the  public  (real  or 
supposed)  grievances,  which  we  use  as  pegs 
whereon  to  hang  our  own  errors  and  defects, 
will  follow  of  itself.  In  short,  let  every  man 
measure  his  efforts  by  his  power  and  his  sphere 
of  action,  and  do  all  he  can  do !    Let  him  con- 


231 

tribute  money  where  he  cannot  act  personally ; 
bullet  him  act  personally  and  in  detail  wherev- 
er it  is  practicable.  Let  us  palliate  where  we 
cannot  cure,  comfort  where  we  cannot  relieve ; 
and  for  the  rest  rely  upon  the  promise  of  the 
King  of  Kings  by  the  mouth  of  his  Prophet, 
"blessed   are   ye  that  sow  beside   all 

WATERS." 


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